


Webby and the Quest to Hold Lena's Hand

by TerminalMiraculosis



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Everythings canon complaint except lena stays in the manor instead of with violet, F/F, I love violet but this is gayer, Post Season 2, just realized i wrote canon complaint instead of canon compliant, mostly fluff but also lenas here so you know, my poor duck children, some angst too, thats just the way its gonna be now i guess, they are just very gay and also very bad at it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:33:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 40,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21676090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerminalMiraculosis/pseuds/TerminalMiraculosis
Summary: The hand of her best friend.Webby really… really liked holding that hand, and not just because of the magic powers that often came as a result. In fact, she was actually kind of disappointed that all the times she’d held that hand had been during some life-threatening, supernaturally-charged moment. She didn’t want to hold Lena’s hand because she had to, she wanted to hold Lena’s hand because she wanted to—because it was soft, and warm, and her own hand fit perfectly inside it.Meanwhile, Lena just kind of wanted a nap, but Webby kept dragging her off on daring adventures. And it wasn't like she could saynotoWebby.She just hoped she could get through this dumb cave without losing control.
Relationships: Lena (Disney: DuckTales)/Webby Vanderquack
Comments: 43
Kudos: 336





	1. Into the Deep End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webby convinces Lena to come along on an adventure. The triplets proceed to cause problems.

Webby stood in the open doorway of the Sunchaser, letting the wind ripple through her hair. Below, she could see McDuck manor, which the plane was rapidly approaching. 

“This is your captain speaking,” Launchpad called from the cockpit. “We will be crashing in t-minus three… two… one…”

With a deafening eruption of crumpling metal, the Sunchaser slammed into one of Scrooge’s marble garden fountains; at the same instant, Webby jumped. 

Don’t get Webby wrong, she loved having Della around, and there were times when the ability to land the plane safely was very helpful, but she had to admit that Launchpad’s piloting style was a _lot_ more fun. Also, she knew the exact right time to jump from the plane so that she could use the momentum from the crash to launch herself really, really high, which was an important skill for a few reasons.

The first reason was that it was fun; like skydiving, but upwards, and then downwards, and without a parachute, and, okay, so maybe she didn’t know exactly what skydiving was like, but this was probably close, she guessed! She loved the feeling of the open air in her feathers as she soared over the lawn.

The second reason was that it meant nobody could rope her into carrying all the treasure back into the house. Even now, she could see Louie glaring up at her as Scrooge handed him a couple cursed artifacts to carry inside. It’s not like she minded helping, really, and she did feel kind of bad for leaving the boys to do all the heavy lifting, but also, she had saved all of their lives today by suplexing a mutant crocodile (which had been really awesome by the way) so she figured she was karmically safe for now. Besides, she had other things to get to that were much more important.

And that brought her to the third and final reason why she had bothered to learn the Launchpad Launch, as she liked to call it. See, she always left the window to her loft open, in case she ever needed to scale the walls and climb inside. And when the plane crashed on this side of the manor, she could usually angle it so that she landed perfectly on her bed; there wasn’t a lot of room for error, and while she had slammed into the side of the mansion a couple times, it was well worth it to get to her room faster, because inside her room was…

“LENAAAAA!”

The duck in question, who was sitting in Webby’s bed and reading a book just inside the window, snapped her head around to behold Webby barreling towards her. She smiled slightly, in that way she did where her eyes went soft and the tips of her beak teased upwards just a tad, and held out a finger, a faint purple glow emanating from beneath her sweater. A matching glow surrounded Webby as she felt the tingly embrace of Lena’s magic surround her, slowing down her momentum until she was hovering in the air in front of Lena. 

The glow vanished, and Webby plopped down onto the bed. Lena put down her book— _101 Simple Cantrips and Prestidigitations for Aspirant Warlocks_ —and said, “Hey, pink.”

Webby couldn’t help but grin. Well, she was probably grinning already, because she was looking at Lena, but—she just loved the nickname. Like, pink was her favorite color! And Lena was her favorite person! And so Lena saying pink and meaning her was like, AAH! You know? 

Webby was so glad Lena had decided to stay in the manor with them after reclaiming her corporeal form. They’d been having sleepovers eeeeevery night! Webby was so good at sleepovers now!

“How’d the whole ‘lost temple of Sobek’ thing go?” Lena asked

“Great! I suplexed a crocodile monster.” 

“Huh," Lena said. “Sounds exciting.”

“It was,” Webby returned. She knew she was staring, but Lena didn’t seem to mind. Lena never minded! Even back when Lena didn’t think they were friends (even though they _totally_ had been), she’d never seemed to mind the things that Webby did—the things that would make the triplets give her funny looks, or make Granny tell her to ‘behave’ when they were out in public. It always seemed to make her smile instead, which was pretty much infinitely better. “You’re getting really good with your magic!”

Lena shrugged, all cool-like. “It’s getting there. I’ve been practicing more lately; I want to get a handle on my powers before the next world-threatening disaster strikes.”

“Oh, we should have plenty of time before the next one,” Webby reassured. Then she started fidgeting, curling the hem of her skirt with her fingers and looking away. “You know, if you want to practice, you could always come on one of our adventures. Um. If you want.”

“I…” Lena was no longer smiling, which sort of made Webby regret ever bringing this up. “I don’t know, Webby. I don’t think I’m cut out for adventuring.”

“Are you sure?” Webby asked. “Because you’ve got super cool magic powers and stuff, and you’re really brave, and smart, and…” _And pretty._ She bit down on her tongue before the words could come out. She could feel the heat in her cheeks, and refused to look at Lena’s face. “I’m sure you’d be a really big help. And… I mean, I’d really enjoy having you along. B-but I get if you don’t, er… Sorry.”

They lapsed into silence. Lena looked down at her friendship bracelet—her new one—and Webby followed her gaze, her eyes sticking on Lena’s hand. 

The hand of her best friend.

She really… _really_ liked holding that hand, and not just because of the magic powers that often came as a result. In fact, she was actually kind of disappointed that all the times she’d held that hand had been during some life-threatening, supernaturally-charged moment. She didn’t want to hold Lena’s hand because she _had_ to, she wanted to hold Lena’s hand because she _wanted_ to—because it was soft, and warm, and her own hand fit perfectly inside it.

Maybe if she just…

Just kind of…

She inched her arm across the bedsheets, fingers stretching out towards Lena’s. But before Webby’s plot could reach fruition, Lena swiveled around so her feet were dangling off the bed, whisking her hand tragically out of range.

_Darn it._

Lena picked up her book and stared at the cover. “I don’t know, Webby. I’ll think about it. I’m still trying to figure out what I am, and how I work, and how my magic manifests. I don’t want to hurt any of you on accident because I panicked and did something stupid.”

“What about the moonvasion? You didn’t lose control at all then,” Webby said.

“Yeah, I held myself back and we got captured,” Lena said. “I need to find a balance, and I’m not there yet.”

“We’ll all be there to back you up,” Webby said. “I trust you, Lena.”

She gave a single, dry laugh. “And look where that got us the first time.”

Webby’s eyes narrowed. “Hey.”

“Right, right. It wasn’t my fault, I shouldn’t blame myself, yeah, yeah. That doesn’t change the facts—you trusted me, and it put you in danger.”

“Lena—”

“We’re getting off track,” Lena said, hopping off the bed. Webby got up to follow her, watching as she levitated the book back onto Webby’s bookshelf. “Is it really that important to you that I go on one of your adventures? Because if it means that much to you, I’ll do it.”

Webby walked up behind her. She wiggled her fingers experimentally, and started closing the distance between their hands ever so slowly as she talked. “I mean, I’ve wanted to be an adventurer since, like, forever, and now that I am, it’s, I don’t know, I wanna share it with you, I guess. But I get it if you—”

“Nah, you’ve convinced me,” Lena said, turning around to face her. This had the catastrophic consequence of moving the position of her hand, so Webby’s had to shamefully retreat back to her side, foiled once more. Next time, for sure.

“Really?” Webby asked, forcing her mind to focus on the conversation.

“Really,” Lena said, shrugging again. “I’ll tag along on your next field trip. I mean, if the triplets can do it without getting killed, it can’t be that bad, right?”

“Oh, yes! Yes yes yes yes yes!” Webby exclaimed, leaping forward and tackling Lena in a hug. She stumbled back a step but managed to keep her footing, throwing her arms around Webby in return. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun! I have to tell the others!”

She gave Lena one last squeeze, then ran out of the room and bounced down the halls of the mansion. Lena was coming on an adventure! This was great! Adventures were always so daring and dramatic and _romantic_ and Webby was _sure_ that an adventure would provide plenty of opportunities for her to grab Lena’s hand, or carry Lena in her arms, or fight back-to-back with Lena, or be trapped in a small space with Lena for hours with only each other for company, and because it was an adventure all of those things _wouldn’t be weird at all!_ Ooooooooh, she couldn’t _wait!_

* * *

Had Lena known that The Great Scrooge’s Daring Adventures, or whatever, started out with an hours-long plane ride halfway around the world with no entertainment aside from Launchpad’s stash of Darkwing Duck VHSs, she may not have agreed to Webby’s offer.

That was a lie. If Webby wanted her to eat dirt, Lena would ask where she kept her shovels; this had been an inevitability from the moment Webby had brought it up the other day. But that didn’t change the fact that she wanted to rip her feathers out. 

Presently, Dewey was doing some cringy dance in the middle of the plane while singing nonsense syllables along to the Darkwing end credits song. It was horrendous and if Lena had to bear witness to it for any longer she would probably go insane and, like, turn evil again.

 _“Wow,_ Dewey, you have an _amazing_ singing voice,” Lena droned.

Dewey paused his dance to take a small bow. “Why, thank you, miss Lena.”

“Dewey, that was sarcasm,” Louie said from his seat. He had his hood up and his hands stuffed into his pockets, reclining as much as he could in the plane seat. Lena saw earbud cords trailing out from under his hood, and she cursed the fact that she hadn’t thought to bring any.

“What? No it wasn’t,” Dewey argued. “Sarcasm is when you say the opposite of what you mean, which would imply that Lena _doesn’t_ like my singing voice, which is just impossible.”

“It was sarcasm,” Lena clarified. “You sound like a dog playing with a squeaky toy.”

“WHAT?!” Dewey paled and turned to Webby. “Is that true?”

“It’s, you’re, I mean…” Webby shrugged apologetically. “You _are_ a little sharp.”

“It’s more than a little,” Huey chimed in, not bothering to look up from his lame guidebook.

Dewey threw his hands in the air. “Oh, come on!”

“Attention, brave explorers!” came Della’s voice from the front of the plane. Lena could not express how relieved she was that it wasn’t Launchpad’s voice. “We’ll be landing shortly. We’ve got a great day of fun family bonding ahead of us!”

“Finally,” Lena grumbled.

“Please remain seated as we descend.” A beat. “That means you, Dewey.”

Dewey sighed, but obediently trudged over to his seat. “Yes, Mom.”

The plane dipped down below the clouds, and out the window, Lena could see a vast expanse of rainforest that stretched all the way to the horizon. “Oh da—” Her eyes briefly flicked over to the boys on the other side of the plane. “Oh dang,” she said. 

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Webby said. “There’s a lot more to the world than just Duckberg!”

A few minutes later, the plane had rolled to a stop, expertly parked in a just-big-enough clearing by a tall cliffside. The doors opened, and Lena and her friends stepped out onto the lush grass outside.

“Where are we?” Lena asked.

“The Talongass rainforest!” Huey said excitedly, his beak still buried in his guidebook. “It’s one of the largest stretches of temperate forest on the planet.”

“Okay, whatever,” Louie said. _“Why_ are we here? I was promised treasure.”

“Because!”

Lena jumped and swiveled around to see Scrooge standing right behind them. When had he gotten there? Jeez, the guy really knew how to creep around.

“This section of the forest is home to the Talongass Caverns, a deep system of tunnels below the rainforest. Legend has it that the tunnels were used as a sort of temple by an ancient society of geese that used to live here, before being wiped out by the Great Northern Leviathan.”

“Leviathan?” Dewey asked.

“Giant sea serpent,” Webby clarified. “The Great Northern Leviathan was a terrible monster that would eat villages and stuff.”

“Sounds pleasant,” Lena said.

“Eh, he wasn’t so bad once ya got to know ‘im,” Scrooge said with a shrug. “But anyway, where there’s a temple, there’s probably…”

“Treasure!” said Louie.

“Death traps!” said Dewey.

“Undocumented history!” said Huey.

“Curses,” said Lena.

“Well… Yes to all of those, I s’pose,” said Scrooge. “Though the treasure’s what I had in mind.”

Louie pumped his fist.

“Hey, kids!” Della shouted, bounding out of the plane. “You ready to do this, or what? If you need snacks, I brought granola bars and marshmallows, so just ask!”

“Oh, I brought extra explosives if anybody needs to borrow some,” Webby said.

“Atta girl,” Della said, high fiving her.

“Please refrain from blowing up the caverns while we are inside, thank ya very much,” Scrooge said, giving both of them stern looks. “Now without further ado, we should set off. Come along; the entrance to the cave’s not far.”

As they started trekking through the forest towards the looming cliff face, Della fell in line with Lena at the back of the party, patting her on the back.

“I’m glad you decided to come along this time, Lena,” she said. “It’s crazy; I feel like I barely know you!”

“You _do_ barely know me,” Lena said, looking up at her with a twinge of confusion.

“And this is a chance to change that? Right? Riiiight?”

Lena leaned away slightly. “Could you, like, maybe take it down a few notches?”

She sighed. “Sorry, it’s just… Webby’s almost as much of a child to me as my own kids, and you and her are so close. I feel like I should know you better, but I don’t know anything about you.”

“Nothing? Like, at all? Did no one tell you about…” 

From the confused look in Della’s eyes, Lena knew the answer. “I mean, I know you’re a spellcaster, but that’s it. Tell me about what?”

Lena turned around to face forward. “Uh, nevermind.”

“So what made you change your mind?” Della asked after a couple seconds. “About coming along, I mean.”

“Oh, well—” Lena couldn’t help herself, and her eyes found their way to Webby. She was walking next to Huey, twisting her head this way and that to take in every aspect of the forest around her. She had a dorky smile plastered on her face, and her eyes were full of wonder. God—she didn’t care if she died in this dumb cave temple, this trip would be worth it just to see her like this.

Next to her, Della laughed. “It’s nice of you to do it for her, then.”

Lena felt herself go a little red, trying and failing to stop obviously staring at Webby. “Well. We are best friends.”

“Oh, I get it,” Della said, still chuckling. _“Best friends.”_

She winked.

Lena blinked at her. “Did you just wink at me.”

“No,” Della said conspiratorially, and winked again.

“Stop that.”

“Haha! Glad we’re on the same page,” Della said, elbowing Lena lightly in the side.

Lena gave her the best unimpressed teenager look she could muster. “Forget the page, I think we’re reading different _books_ here, lady.”

“Aha, there we go!” Scrooge called from up ahead, and they stopped their conversation as they approached the cave mouth. It looked pretty small for an entrance into a grand tunnel system, just big enough that maybe two Launchpads could walk through shoulder-to-shoulder, but she knew better than most that looks could be deceiving. “The Caves of Talongass.”

Dewey cocked his head. “I thought you said they were called the Talongass Caverns.”

“Does it matter?” Louie asked.

“Yes!” Huey insisted. “Of course it matters!”

“Well, it’s the Caves of Talongass now,” Scrooge declared. “Come on.”

As they began their descent into the cave, Webby sidled up to Lena. “Here we go! You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Lena said. “I mean, it’s been pretty chill so far. I’m guessing all the life-threatening danger is up ahead.”

“Yep! You’re gonna love it!”

“I’m sure I will, pink.”

The light from the outside grew dimmer and dimmer the farther they went, until it was starting to get kind of difficult to see.

Lena glanced over at Scrooge. “So, do we have a light, or…?”

“Yes, yes, just a second,” he said. Lena could vaguely make out him pulling a small lantern out of his pack.

“Seriously?” Louie said. “A lantern? What is this, the 1800s? God, I’d use my phone if I didn’t need the charge for the way back.”

Lena was inclined to agree with him, and was about to contribute a couple quips of her own when she felt something brush against her hand. She yelped and pulled it back, just as Scrooge’s lamp sprung to life. Lena whipped around, but couldn’t see anything suspicious.

“Woah, Lena, you good?” Dewey asked.

“Something touched my hand,” she said, holding it protectively against her chest.

Webby let out a nervous giggle. “It was probably a spider web or something. You know. Ha.”

Lena eyed Webby suspiciously, and her obviously fake smile strained even wider. Lena furrowed her brow; what was she up to? 

“What are you up to?”

“NOTHING! WOW, A BRIDGE!”

Huey raised an eyebrow. “A bridge?”

“A bridge,” Louie said, pointing further down the cavern, where there was a bridge.

“A bridge!” Dewey exclaimed, running over to the bridge.

“Triplets,” Lena grumbled, following along after them.

The cave opened into a large, open room, the main feature of which was a giant pit that stretched far across the canyon—much too far for even Webby’s grappling hook. The only way across was a single, thin rope bridge. Lena rolled her eyes; this was straight out of some dumb movie.

“Woah,” Webby said. “Is this thing even safe to cross?”

Scrooge tapped it with his cane. “Eh. It looks sturdy enough. Just so long as we—”

“Last one across doesn’t get any treasure!” Louie shouted, taking off down the wooden planks.

Dewey yelped and ran after him, and Huey, after a moment, let out a “Wait for me!” before following his brothers.

“—are careful,” Scrooge finished, looking profoundly unamused.

Della cupped her hands around her mouth. “Love your initiative, kids, but maybe slow down a little?”

“Here we go,” Webby said in resignation, pulling out her grappling hook.

Lena watched with trepidation as the bridge swung from side to side, teetering on its posts, before finally, inevitably, coming undone. The ropes unknotted around the stakes right in front of Lena’s eyes, as if in slow motion.

“OH CRAP!” Dewey, who was now in the lead, yelled as the planks began to fall out from under him.

“Language!” Della chided.

Webby shot her grappling hook out and latched it around the first few boards of the bridge. Her muscles tensed as she tried to hold up the combined weight of the bridge and the triplets, but Lena could tell she wouldn’t be able to keep it aloft for long.

“This is all your fault, Louie!” Huey shouted.

With a grunt, Webby fell forward from the weight; Lena lunged forward, but Scrooge beat her there. He grabbed Webby around the middle and pulled, and the bridge managed to stay upright for at least a few more seconds.

“ _MY_ fault?” Louie shouted over his shoulder.

“Run!” Della instructed, grabbing onto Scrooge and joining the pulling train. “You can make it to the other side! You’re so close!”

“I didn’t ask you guys to follow me!” Louie argued, even as he scrambled towards the far ledge.

“You were challenging us! Same thing!” Huey said.

Scrooge’s foot slipped, and the whole thing almost plummeted into the pit before Lena threw out her hands and snatched Webby, Scrooge, and Della in her telekinesis. She strained with the effort as she tried to keep the bridge taught; with Magica still sapping her magic, she’d managed to lift up an entire _train car._ This should be nothing, right?

Lena grit her teeth. “Just… a little… more—ah!”

She felt her mental grip loosen a little, and quickly compensated, reasserting her spell. 

But she lost control.

A horrified gasp escaped her throat as the three ducks in her magic jerked hard away from the pit; Webby’s grappling hook, the line still locked, tugged at the bridge with a dreadful groan, and as Lena saw the ropes beginning to fray, she only just had the presence of mind to shout, “JUMP!”

With a snap, the bridge fell apart, just as Huey, Dewey, and Louie leapt towards the other side of the chasm. Louie had the strongest jump and he soared over his brothers, his hand just barely curling around the ledge of the cliff—Dewey managed to wrap his arms around Louie’s stomach in an awkward sort of hug, and Huey, still taking up the rear, only just reached far enough to grasp one of Dewey’s ankles. With a grunt, Louie brought his other hand up onto the ledge, and the three of them hung there in a stack above the abyss.

“Hang on!” Della shouted, once she’d recovered from being thrown by Lena’s magic. “We’re coming!”

“Oh, real great advice, Mom!” Louie barked. “Hang on! Yeah, didn’t think of that one!”

 _“How_ are you coming?” Huey called. “The bridge is broken!”

“I’m, uh, don’t worry, we have a plan!” Della turned to Scrooge. “Uncle Scrooge, what’s the plan?”

“Hmm.” Scrooge’s eyes were scanning the cavern; Lena could practically hear his brain whirring along. “Ah don’t rightly know.”

“I can’t see anything I can use to swing across,” Webby said nervously. “Lena, what about your magic?”

“I don’t think I can use it from this far away,” Lena said.

“Could you try?” Webby pleaded. “They’re in trouble!”

“I-I…” Lena froze up, staring into Webby’s eyes. “I _just_ lost control of my telekinesis. I don’t know if I can do this!”

Webby smiled. “Lena, I know you can!”

 _“HOW?”_ Lena arched backwards, clutching her hands over her magical core. “How do you know that?”

“Uh, hey, hands are getting tired!” Louie shouted from across the cavern. “How’s that plan coming?”

“Yeah, don’t leave us _hanging,_ guys!” Dewey said.

Huey’s groan was audible from all the way across the chasm. “Now is _not_ the time, Dewey.”

“We have to do something!” Webby insisted, ignoring the brothers.

Lena looked from Webby, to the boys, to Webby, to her own pulsating core. “I… think I have an idea.”

“Do it!” Scrooge said, shooting her a determined glance.

Lena nodded, and let herself melt into her shadow. She vaguely heard Webby call her name out in alarm, but it was muddled and nigh unintelligible from across the Veil. She felt her body flatten into nothing, felt her makeshift organs disperse back into the smoky magic they were made of, and watched the colors of the world invert, then fade to monochrome. 

_Hey, fragment. Welcome back._

Lena swam through the murky blackness, sliding across the floor and up the wall of the cavern, eating up the light from Scrooge’s lantern as she moved. _Just ignore them, Lena,_ she thought to herself. 

She saw a dark shape floating up in her periphery, and a giant eye blinked open at her, casting a pale black spotlight over her path. _Heard you got yourself a corporeal form. How’s life up there treating ya? I wanna hear all about it._

She could make out the muffled yelps of Huey and Dewey as one of Louie’s hands slipped from its purchase. She kept swimming.

 _Oh, don’t listen to them, Lena._ The words came from deeper in the shadows, and she felt something cold and immaterial brush up against her core. _They just want to use you. But I—I want to work with you. If we could just cut a deal—_

Lena flashed her magic, and with a garbled, eldritch hiss of pain, she felt the foreign presence back off. She picked up the pace from there, and as soon as she was across the pit, she began the painful process of pulling herself out of the shadows.

 _Wait, don’t go!_ She couldn’t tell if that was the same one or a different one—she didn’t care. _Don’t flee back into the light, Queenschild, we have so much to talk abou—_

With a gasp, Lena broke out of the wall, and tumbled onto the stone. She shook her head vigorously, tried to push the icky feeling of the shadow realm out of her mind, and ran over to Louie. She grabbed him by the arms and slowly managed to pull the three boys up over the ledge and onto solid ground, which Louie promptly kissed, and promptly regretted.

As Louie brushed the dirt off his tongue, Dewey looked up at Lena with starry eyes. “Woah, you can walk through shadows? That’s so cool!”

“Yeah, it’s, uh.” She shivered a little. “It’s pretty cool.”

“Thanks,” Huey said simply. “You really saved our butts.”

“Yeah,” Louie agreed. “I was about to let go and just hope these guys made good cushions.”

“You kids alright?”

That was Della. Lena stood up, groaned, nodded, and flashed a thumbs up.

“We should be able to scale down the walls and back up the other side,” Scrooge called over. “It’ll take a good few minutes, but it should be safe. Don’t go any deeper until we’re regrouped, got it?”

A chorus of “Yes, Uncle Scrooge” erupted from the triplets, which was immediately followed by Dewey saying, “So, we’re totally gonna scope this out, right?”

“Of course,” Louie said. “As long as we’re back here before they get up, Scrooge will be none the wiser.”

“I don’t know,” Lena said. “We have no clue what’s in there.”

“You could keep watch,” Huey suggested. “Let us know when they’re almost up on this side so we can come back.”

Lena gave him a flat look. “Yeah, so, there is no way I’m letting you guys go in there unsupervised.”

“Come on, Lena, I thought you were _cool,”_ Louie said, hands deep in his hoodie.

Lena bristled. “I _am_ cool.”

“No,” Louie said, leaning forward until he was inches away from Lena’s face, grinning smugly. “Apparently, you’re the _supervision.”_

Lena frowned, then pushed him away by the forehead. He grumbled and moved to fix his hair, but stopped as Lena said, “Fine.”

Dewey fist pumped. “Yes!”

“But we better be back here before they know we’re gone.”

“Well, yeah, we’re not stupid,” Louie said. 

“Of course you aren’t,” Lena said.

Dewey gave her a suspicious look. “Was that sarc—”

“Yes,” Lena interrupted. “Now let’s get going before the notion of how bad of an idea this is catches up with me.”

With that, they set off into the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyy thanks for reading! I've just gotten into the DuckTales fandom and very rapidly found myself plummeting down the Weblena rabbit hole, so here we are. Love these gay ducks.
> 
> I have no update schedule planned for this but I'm Really Feeling It so it should be relatively prompt. Catch ya in the next one!!


	2. Lena Versus Babysitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena argues with stupid boys who don't understand her, and also some other stuff happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just three thousand words of people trying to wingman Webby and Lena.

Webby watched as Scrooge hammered a piton into the ground, a pile of rope resting at his feet. She sighed; this sucked. Like, improvised rock climbing was fine and all, but it wasn’t very glamorous. She would much rather be on the other side of the gap, sneaking off deeper into the cave because, psh, who did Scrooge think he was? The boys weren’t going to listen to him. And she couldn’t blame them! She just wished she was over there.

Also, Lena was over there! This was supposed to be Webby And Lena’s Big Adventure, not Lena And The Nephews’ Big Adventure While Webby Was Stuck With The Adults! This was  _ not _ at  _ all _ how this trip had been playing out in her head for the past few days—she was noting a distinct lack of thrilling traps, daring rescues, and  _ especially _ hand holding. 

She was still pretty bitter about her failed attempt to take Lena’s hand when they’d been in the entrance tunnel. She probably should’ve known better than to go for a sneak attack against Lena (her reflexes were too good), but they always say ‘The third times the charm,’ so Webby had thought that maybe she would be successful. But the third time  _ hadn’t  _ been the charm, so, thanks, the English language, for giving her false hope, she guessed.

Before too much longer, the rope was secured, and they were inching down the cliff; Scrooge had taken the plunge first, followed by Webby, with Della taking up the rear, which was in this case less of a rear and more of a top.

“So,” Della said softly as they climbed. “You and Lena, huh?”

Webby blinked up at her. “What about me and Lena?”

“Oh, you know,” Della said. She looked down and winked.

“What… do I know? Sorry, I’m confused.”

“How you’re  _ best friends?” _ She winked again.

Webby took another hop down the side of the cliff. “Oh! Why didn’t you say that? Yeah, we’re best friends! Have been for a while now. That’s why I was so excited when she regained her body!”

“When she what now?”

“Also, is your eye okay? It keeps twitching.”

Della paused. “Wait. Are you two  _ not  _ dating?”

“Not d—” Webby’s muscles locked up. “You thought—wait, but… d-date… me and Lena, dating—”

From below, Scrooge let out a weary sigh. “Look what ya did now, Della. Do you know how hard it is to climb a sheer surface while carrying an unconscious child?”

Webby could feel her face heating up to critical levels. “But dating would—girlfriends? And—and—holding hands—Lena— _ kissing—” _

“Unconscious?” Della echoed. “But she’s not—oh.”

As Webby’s grip went slack and she began to fall, Scrooge’s cane was already outstretched to catch her.

* * *

Lena followed the triplets deeper into the cavern. They quickly lost what little light they’d had back in the bridge room (which she could no longer rightly call a bridge room, thanks to  _ some certain people),  _ so Lena snapped her fingers, and a bright light shone out from her pointer finger.

“Huh,” Louie said. “Well that’s convenient.”

“Learned it from a library book,” Lena said.

Dewey raised an eyebrow. “They have spellbooks in the library?”

“You’d know that if you actually went to the library with me,” Huey grumbled. “So, Lena. What other kinds of spells do you know?”

There was a click as Louie stepped on a pressure plate laid into the floor, and an arrow shot out from a slit in the wall. Louie yelped and threw up his hands, but Lena caught the projectile in her telekinesis before it could do any harm. “Well, levitation is one. Also some basic energy blasts, a few party tricks. Nothing too crazy.”

“Aha!” Louie said, once he realized he wasn’t dead. “Traps! That must mean we’re going towards the treasure!”

“What about how you crossed the gap?” Huey asked as they followed after a determined Louie. “Was that shadow magic?”

“I mean, technically,” Lena said. “That’s less of a ‘spell,’ though, and more like something I can just sort of do.”

“Oh, because you’re a shadow construct, right?” Huey said. 

Dewey kicked him. “Dude!” he hissed.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Lena said, trying her best to keep her stoic teenager face on. “It’s… what I am.”

“If…” Huey tapped his fingers together as they wove around a few moving buzzsaws in the floor. “If you don’t mind, what’s it… like?”

Lena was quiet for a moment. “I don’t really know how to describe it. I’d like to think that the way I feel is the same way an actual person would feel—like, breathing and having organs and stuff—but I mean, how could I know that, really? I’m not a person. I’m just some last-ditch spell of Magica’s that she accidentally fed too much magic into, so I gained sentience.” It was somehow both comforting and disquieting that Magica also had struggles controlling her magic all the time; during all those years wandering the world to find Scrooge’s dime, Magica had never stopped lamenting how much easier it would’ve gone had Lena been a ‘proper puppet.’

She leapt over a pit of spikes and turned to face the triplets, who were standing there awkwardly. Huey and Dewey turned to stare at Louie, who returned their looks with a glare. “What?”

“Say something to reassure her,” Dewey whispered as they started making their way across the spikes. Well, Lena said ‘whispered,’ but that was perhaps too generous; these boys would be terrible on stealth missions.

“Why me?” Louie ‘whispered’ back.

“Because you’re good at words and stuff, dummy!”

“Ugh, fine!” Louie cleared the spike pit and turned to face her, clearing his throat. “Nooooo, no, Lena, you’re  _ definitely  _ a person!” he said. “You have, like, free will and junk!”

“So do, like, half of Gyro’s inventions,” Lena countered. “And most of those end up rebelling against their creator, just like I did. I’m basically as much of a person as Lil’ Bulb is.”

“I mean, that’s not so bad,” Louie said. “Lil’ Bulb’s great. Love that little dude.”

Lena gave him a flat look.

“Okay, yeah, I’m out of my depth here, guys,” he said to his brothers, not even bothering to whisper anymore. “Let’s just change the subject.”

“Please,” Lena said, stepping over a tripwire as they continued through the temple.

“So.” Dewey ran up beside her and gave her his Interviewer Look. “Webby, huh?”

“Guh,” Lena said, the picture of grace, as her foot caught on a loose brick and she fell face-first into a cobweb. “Ack! Fuuuuu…udge!” she swore, scrambling to claw it off of her face as she got back on her feet.

Louie smirked. “Wow, you’ve got it bad, don’t you?”

She rolled her eyes, throwing the last of the webs to the ground. “I should’ve left you all to die on that ledge.”

* * *

Webby woke up on the floor of the pit. She immediately sat bolt upright and shouted,  _ “DATING LENA?!” _

Scrooge, who was preparing for their climb up the far side of the pit, shot her a look over his shoulder. “Ah, you’re awake. Perfect. I was worried I’d have to lug ya  _ up _ the cliff, too.”

Della walked over and offered her a hand, which Webby gladly took, getting to her feet. “Sorry about that, Webby,” she said. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay,” Webby assured. “I just wasn’t emotionally prepared.”

“It’s great that you and Lena are such good friends,” Della went on. “I guess from the way you talk about her, I just thought you had a thing for her, but I shouldn’t have—”

“Oh, no, I  _ definitely _ have a thing for her,” Webby laughed. “I’m not an idiot. But if you tell her, I  _ will _ have to kill you in your sleep.”

Della nodded. “Got it. My lips are sealed.”

“Alright, team,” Scrooge said. “Get those biceps ready, because it’s all uphill from here.”

And so they began to scale the cliff. It was pretty slow-going, and before too long, Della was once again trying to bond with Webby. Webby didn’t mind, though; Della was pretty cool, and Webby knew what it was like to want to talk a lot,  _ especially _ after going for years without any real conversations. 

“So why don’t you tell her?” Della asked. “Lena, that is.”

“Oh, well, lots of reasons,” Webby explained. “One, I don’t know if she likes me back, and if she doesn’t then it would be super weird and awkward and she may not want to have sleepovers anymore and that would be  _ terrible _ . Two, she’s still trying to figure out who she is, and I don’t want to make that more complicated for her. And three, I’m a huge mess and if I tried to tell her I’d probably blush so hard my face would explode, and if my face explodes, then I’d never be able to k… to ki… kiss…”

“Deep breaths, lass,” Scrooge said absentmindedly from above them.

Webby breathed in and out, long and slow, and eventually felt her heart rate return to normal. “So, yeah,” she finished.

“I see,” Della said. “Hmmm. Verrrry interesting…”

Scrooge stopped, turned, and glared down at his niece. “Della, if this is going to be a repeat of the  _ love potion _ incident from your high school days, then—”

She waved a hand frantically. “No magic, I promise! Well, unless you count Lena.” She paused. “You know, I thought you hated magic, Scrooge. What made you take in a sorceress?”

“That girl sacrificed herself for the sake of my family,” Scrooge explained. “She’ll always have a place in it.”

Della chuckled. “I knew I liked her for a reason. How did you two meet, Webby?”

“Oh, well, I was alone at the beach, and she was making messages in bottles, and I talked with her because she had pretty hair, and then we crashed Ma Beagle’s birthday party and almost died.”

“Aw, that’s so cute!” Della cooed. 

“Is it?” Webby blushed. “Well. It  _ was _ pretty daring and all.”

“Ah, kids,” Scrooge said. “Back in my day, you went to a proper restaurant on your first date, you know.”

“It—it wasn’t a date!” Webby insisted.

Scrooge laughed. “Oh, I know, lass. I’m just joshin’ ya.” 

“Oh. Haha! Funny!” Oh, gosh, her face was going to melt off.

Fortunately, they were just about at the top of the cliff, and with a few grunts, they managed to pull themselves up the ledge and onto the ground on the other side of the chasm. The notably  _ deserted _ other side of the chasm. This fortunately gave the adults something else to focus on besides Webby’s love life.

_ “I TOLD THEM TO STAY PUT!” _ Scrooge fumed, waving his cane in the air. “I’ve no clue how Donald put up with them for so long!”

“You didn’t actually think they would  _ listen, _ did you?” Webby asked.

“I’m allowed to  _ dream, _ aren’t I?”

“Aw, c’mon, Scrooge! You’re not too old to remember what it’s like to be a kid, are ya?” Della prodded. “Let them have their fun!”

“I know, I know,” Scrooge said. “Fine. Best we go after ‘em.”

Suddenly, Webby’s friendship bracelet began glowing brightly, overshadowing even the glow from Scrooge’s lantern. “Ah!” she cried. “What’s happening? Lena?!”

And then in a brilliant flash of light, she found herself standing outside a large, ornate doorway, decorated with intricate carvings depicting geese bowing to several frog-headed, diety-esque creatures. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were standing in a line in front of her, looking at her; Huey and Dewey’s jaws dropped open as she suddenly appeared, but Louie had his eyes closed and had one arm bent at the elbow, the fingers of his hand splayed open carelessly. It was the pose he took whenever he was saying a one liner that he  _ knew _ would receive a glare.

“—snogging secretly for weeks now,” he said, then opened his eyes. “Gah! Webby?! How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to hear about snogging secretly,” she said. “What just happened?”

* * *

**A Few Minutes Prior**

Lena stalked through the tunnel, her hands clenched in tight fists by her side, vibrating with pure rage. This was hell. Hell was real, and it was right now, and she was two seconds away from blowing.

“Lena and Webby, sitting in a tree!” Dewey sang.

His brothers joined in for the chorus: “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

Lena ground her teeth. A crushing spike trap activated from above her, and she lashed out with her magic, causing the trap to disintegrate into purple dust. It only helped marginally.

“First comes love,” Huey sang.

“Then comes marriage!” Louie added.

Dewey took a deep breath. “Then comes—”

“Shut up!” Lena roared. It echoed off the walls. It sent stalactites falling from the ceiling. It roused the ancient Talongassians from their endless slumbers in the crypts below them. “Shut up! Just, shut up, for, like,  _ two _ seconds!”

“You can’t shut up the truth!” Huey said. “Admit it! You like her!”

“It’s  _ not _ like that,” Lena insisted.

“Oh, sure,” Louie said. “You just have an unbreakable magical bond and sleep in the same room together. Everything about that seems incredibly platonic.”

“I mean—it’s not like we share the bed,” Lena said.

“Lena,” Dewey said, “I have never met any two people who are sharing a bed as hard as you and Webby are.”

“Dewey, that doesn’t make any sense,” Huey said.

Louie shrugged. “No, but also, it kind of does.”

“It doesn’t make sense because we  _ aren’t _ sharing the bed,” Lena insisted.

They just  _ looked _ at her.    


_ “OKAY FINE WE SHARE THE BED _ ,” Lena screeched, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “Is that what you wanted to hear? I was having nightmares! I don’t get them when I’m sleeping with her! Is that a  _ crime?” _

“And you haven’t, I don’t know, stopped to consider  _ why _ sleeping with Webby prevents you from getting nightmares?” Huey asked. “Maybe… you’re dreaming of something else?”

A lightbulb seemed to go off over Dewey’s head, and he grinned up at her. “Oh! Oh! Or— _ someone _ else? Ehh?!”

“GggggrrRRAAAH!” Lena said, very politely and calmly. “If I say I have a crush on her, will you leave me alone?”

“So you  _ do _ have a crush on her,” Louie said, his face far too smug for Lena’s taste.

Lena crossed her arms. “I didn’t say that.”

“I don’t know, you’re getting  _ awfully _ defensive there,” Louie teased.

“Come on, Lena, you’ve been beet red this entire time,” Huey said. Then he reached under his hat and—oh,  _ fuck _ no. “See, it says here in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook that when two people care for each other very much—”

“Huey, I swear, I will magic that book into the Shadow Realm.”

“But you’re showing at  _ least _ eight of the twelve signs of—”

Lena flared her core. Huey cautiously slid the book back under his hat.

“Look, it doesn’t matter if I have a crush on her. It’s not like she’s gonna reciprocate,” Lena said as they emerged from the tunnel into a larger cavern. Across from them was a large, ornate stone doorway, framed by large wall-mounted torches on either side. “Do you think this is the entrance to the temple?”

“Woah, woah, hold up,” Dewey said. “The temple can wait. You don’t think Webby likes you?”

Lena shifted uncomfortably. Her mind began conjuring up images of bows and bob cuts against her will. “I mean, it’s a miracle she likes me at all. She sure doesn’t like me like  _ that,” _ Lena said.

“Lena,” Dewey said slowly. “Have you  _ seen _ the way she looks at you?”

“Nah, she’s usually too distracted looking back,” Louie snarked.

Lena blushed, because, well, shit, he was right. She could see that face in her mind’s eye right now. “How… does she look at me?”

“Like you’re a work of art,” Huey said.

Lena smiled, and felt herself begin to glow with what she could only assume was joy.

“Like you’re her whole world,” Dewey said.

Thoughts of Webby scurried through her mind; her grappling hook, her cute little vest, her excited rambling, her unwavering loyalty and bravery and  _ faith _ in Lena, even in her darkest hours. Belatedly, Lena realized that she was glowing with a bit more than just happiness. She was, quite literally, beginning to glow, blue light washing outwards from her bracelet. “Uhh. Guys?”

Huey and Dewey looked concerned, but Louie didn’t seem to notice, bringing his hand up in the way he did when he was about to say something that really got on Lena’s nerves. “Yeah, I mean, the way you two look at each other, I’m surprised you haven’t been—”

There was a brilliant flash of light, and suddenly, Lena was staring at the concerned faces of Scrooge and Della, back in the room that had been formerly known as the bridge room. At least they were already on the correct side of the pit.

“…Lena?” Della said.

Lena threw her hands in the air. “Gah, stupid friendship magic! I have no clue how this crap works!”

“Is Webby alright?” Scrooge asked.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we switched places, and I was in a safe spot,” Lena said. “I was, like, thinking about her, and because of all my  _ feelings _ and junk, it must’ve sparked the sympathetic link between our bracelets.”

“Feelings, huh?” Della said smugly. “What sort of feelings?”

“Oh, don’t even start,” Lena snapped. “I’ve been getting it nonstop from the boys.”

“Speaking of which—I  _ told _ you kids to stay put,” Scrooge intoned, poking his cane at her.

“Exactly,” Lena said. “You told Huey, Dewey, and Louie to stay put. You should  _ really _ know better by now, dude.”

“What about you, then? You could’ve stopped them!”

“HA! Are you kidding? You think they respect  _ me _ of all people? The pathetic little freeloader with a gallon and a half of mental issues?” She rolled her eyes. “I went with them to try to keep them safe, and now they have Webby with them, so they’re probably even safer. We should still try to catch up to them before they find anything really nasty, though. We were right at the entrance to the temple when I left them.”

Scrooge sighed. “You’re right. I s’pose. Well, no time to waste, then! Tally-ho!”

“Did you  _ really _ just say ‘Tally-ho?’” Lena said.  _ “God, _ you’re old.”

“I know, right?” Della said.

Scrooge levied a glare over his shoulder at the both of them. “Oh, hush up and walk, will ya?”

“Yes, Uncle Scrooge,” Della said. 

Lena just rolled her eyes, and followed him down the tunnel. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Just fyi, the next chapter probably won't be coming out quite as soon as this one did. It'll still be within the week but it may be a bit more than two days lmao. See ya then!


	3. Arms Race

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webby has one of her dreams fulfilled, even as another continues to ruthlessly elude her. Lena takes a nap.

Lena began the descent down the tunnel system for the second time that day, sandwiched between Scrooge and Della; with all the traps already sprung, it went much quicker than before with the boys.

“So those friendship bracelets,” Della began. “They have magic, right? Did you enchant them?”

“Nah,” Lena said. “Webby just kind of made them. And then friendship magic was like, ‘hey, guess what, I exist, despite Magica  _ repeatedly _ telling you that I wasn’t real,’ and then it saved my life.”

“Magica?” Della asked. “Like, De Spell?”

“That’s the bitch,” Lena said, brushing aside a large, spiky iron ball on a chain that was dangling from the ceiling. That one had almost gotten Dewey, if she recalled.

“She sure is,” Scrooge mumbled from in front of them.

“Long story short, I was working with her for a while, and then she possessed me for a bit to get revenge on Scrooge, and then she banished me to the Shadow Realm, and I only barely managed to maintain a connection to the mortal plane through my bond with Webby. It was, like, a whole thing.”

Della winced. “The Shadow Realm? That sounds awful. I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t great. There are some nasty things in there,” Lena said, leaping over a familiar spike pit. “Probably not as rough as getting stranded on the moon for ten years, though.”

“Eh,” Della said. “The Moon wasn’t so bad.”

“Yes it was,” Lena said immediately, without turning around. “Don’t try that on me. It was cold and dark and lonely; you had to stave off the insanity somehow, so you focused on We… on your family, on trying to get back. But no matter how hard you reached, the distance between you was just too far. And so you talked to yourself like you were talking to them, and it hurt, because you knew they were already mourning you. They thought you were dead, and the worst part was that you had no idea if you’d be able to hold on long enough to prove them wrong, or if you’d just wither away to nothing, with no one there to see you die.”

Silence.

Whoops. She’d gotten carried away. The fact that it hadn’t been with her magic this time was a hollow comfort.

Lena was pretty sure that she had killed the mood, so to speak; it was quiet in the cave except for their footfalls against the stone. They navigated around all the traps that she and the triplets had already activated, stepping over fallen arrows and gaping trapdoors. Lena could only see the back of Scrooge’s head in front of her, and so had no clue what expression he was wearing; the silence was beginning to grow unbearable, though, so she took a chance and looked over her shoulder at Della.

She was crying.  _ Nice going, Lena. _

“Sorry,” she said uncomfortably. “That was too much, wasn’t it?”

“No, it’s just—” Della wiped at her eyes. “You understand. You  _ understand. _ Nobody—” She paused, taking a deep breath and letting her voice retreat back into its normal register.  _ “Nobody _ deserves to understand what I went through. Especially not a  _ child.” _

She was looking at Lena with such a unique flavor of sadness; Lena couldn’t take it anymore. She glanced away. “Yeah, it. Kind of sucks.”

“If you ever want to talk, I’m here,” Della said. “And I’m gonna  _ stay  _ here this time.”

Lena allowed herself a tiny smile. “Me too.”

Up ahead, Scrooge cleared his throat, and finally broke into words. “You know, you two remind me of myself when I was young. Except that you’re smart enough not to tackle this all on your own.” He turned around to face them, and Lena could see the concern in his eyes. “Reach out to your friends and family, lassies,” he said. “With them, you can come back from anything. It took me far too long to learn that lesson; don’t make my mistake.”

Lena just nodded, her mind flitting back to Webby. She knew that all too well.

“Now then!” Scrooge declared, swiveling around and raising his cane up to the cavern’s roof. “Let’s go find those kids before they get themselves killed!”

* * *

“We’re gonna get ourselves killed!” Dewey shouted, leaping out of the way as a giant stone golem punched the ground where he’d been standing a second before.

“How are these statues even moving?” Huey wondered aloud as he swatted at it with a torch he’d grabbed off the wall.

“Better question; how do  _ we _ get moving  _ out of this chamber?” _ Louie asked.

Webby scanned the room. As far as entry halls for ancient temples went (and she had seen quite a few more than the average duck), it was pretty small, the only real defining features being the two giant statues of armored geese that had recently come alive to try and kill them. She was sparring with one, while the boys handled the other. “They’re too small to fit through the door!” Webby said, gesturing across the room to the exit that led deeper into the temple. “Quick!”

They all raced towards the other side of the entry hall, Webby heading the charge, and the golems turned mechanically to follow. Webby heard a chorus of screams from behind her, and skidded to a halt on the dusty floors, looking over her shoulder. One of the golems had reached out and scooped up Huey, Dewey, and Louie in its hands, holding them tightly between its fingers.

“Guys!” Webby shouted. She ran towards them, but the second golem quickly cut her off with a low sweep of its arm. She vaulted over the attack, but landed hard on her knees, her grappling hook falling out of her grasp and skipping off across the ground, out of reach. Darn it! She swore, if there was even so much as a  _ dent _ in it, she would find whoever built this temple and have a very stern word with them.

The golem swiped at her again, and she rolled out of the way, scrambling to her feet. She didn’t know how she would be able to save the boys like this; the golems were already hard enough to hurt, and adding in the fact that it was two against one, things were looking a little tricky.

But Webby could do tricky! With a warcry, she leapt up at one of the golems—and was immediately knocked out of the air.

Well.

This was gonna hurt!

Then, there was a great shout from the temple’s entrance: “LET GO OF MY KIDS!”

As Webby tumbled through the air away from the golems, another figure launched past her towards them, and with a loud clank of metal on stone, Della’s foot smashed into the chest of the golem that was holding the boys. It stumbled backwards and released its grip.

Webby felt herself land not on the hard floor, but in the soft, besweatered arms of Lena. She barely registered Scrooge rushing forwards to do battle with the golem she had previously been fighting, all of her attention focused on the face smiling down at her.

“Hey, Pink,” Lena said.

Webby squealed happily, her fists under her chin, vibrating intensely. “Lena, you saved me! Yes, yes, yes! This is just like how I dreamed this adventure would go!”

Lena raised an eyebrow, but her smile didn’t falter. “What’s this about dreams?”

_ How you would save me and hold me in your arms just like this and look down at me and say something cool and then we would kiss and— _

“NOTHING!” Webby exclaimed hastily. 

“Kids!” Scrooge called. “Get a move on!”

“R-right!” Webby said, but she made no effort to get out of Lena’s arms. After a moment, Lena set her down on the ground and took her by the wrist (The _wrist?_ _Seriously?!_ Come _ON!),_ leading her towards the exit. They made it through right behind Della and the boys, and Scrooge managed to slip in just as a giant stone fist slammed down at his heels. Now that they were all out of reach, the statues stalked back over to their pedestals at either side of the entry hall, and became inanimate once again.

“Whew,” Louie said, panting with his hands on his knees. “That was close.”

“Onwards!” Dewey proclaimed, pumping a hand in the air. “Maybe they’ll be flamethrowers next! We haven’t run into a good flamethrower trap in a while.”

Huey rolled his eyes. “It’s like you  _ want _ to get your hair burnt off again.”   
  
“It grew back!”

Ever-bickering, the triplets set off down the winding hallways of the temple, with Scrooge and Della right on their trail. At first, Webby almost instinctively ran to catch up with them, but then remembered the  _ real _ point of this adventure, and instead fell into step alongside Lena.

“Thanks for the save back there,” Webby said, eyeing Lena’s hand as it swung back and forth by her side.

“Oh, it was nothing,” Lena said. “I mean, you’ve got ninja reflexes. You probably would’ve landed on your feet anyway, right?”

Webby shrugged. “Maybe. It was still nice."

They exchanged a short, smiling glance, and as Lena broke it off to refocus on where she was going, Webby took her chance. As Lena’s hand swung forward, Webby snaked her own into the path of its backswing; that way, Lena’s would collide with hers ‘on accident,’ and then if their fingers interlocked, well, that wouldn’t be  _ Webby’s _ fault.

Lena brought her hand up to scratch an itch on the side of her scalp, neatly dodging Webby’s trap. 

She nearly screamed. Why did shadows even  _ get _ itchy? That didn’t make any sense! Uuuughhhh, why was this so  _ difficult?! _

“So, Lena,” Webby said, trying not to let the bitterness in her soul seep into her vocal chords. “What was that whole ‘switching places’ thingy about?”

“Right, that.” Lena’s hand returned to her side as she talked, picking up its previous rhythm. Webby smirked; the hunt was back on!

“I think it has to do with the friendship magic we share,” she went on. “Which I still hate saying because friendship magic should not be a thing and it makes no sense, but I guess it’s what’s allowing me to maintain a physical link to the mortal plane, so maybe I shouldn’t complain too much.”

“But do you know why it happened?” Webby twitched her hand, but paused; no. Now wasn’t the time. “It could be really useful if we could get a handle on what causes it.”

“Well…” Lena’s eyes darted towards a far-off column in the hallway, away from Webby. She was just the tiiiiiniest bit red in the face, but Webby noticed, obviously. Did she stare at Lena’s face too much? Probably not, right? Whatever. “I may have been… thinking about you? More than usual? Uh—not that I’m  _ usually _ thinking about you. I think about a lot of things, you know. You’re just one of those things.” She coughed “Ahem. But, uh. But this time you  _ were _ the thing I was thinking about, and somehow that jumpstarted our friendship magic and pulled us both through the link we share.” 

Webby smiled. “It’s nice of you to think about me.”

“Is it?” Lena said. “You’re welcome, then.”

Webby’s hand moved in. Lena crossed her arms nervously, and Webby caught a handful of air.

“MMMMMMMMM,” Webby seethed, screaming through a clenched beak.

Lena jumped, shooting her a strange look. “Are you okay?”

“I’M FINE,” Webby said. “I NEED TO TALK TO HUEY DEWEY AND LOUIE ABOUT SOMETHING.”

She didn’t wait for Lena’s response, instead speed-walking past the adults until she was next to the boys.

Dewey turned. “Webby? What’s wrong?”

“Hhhhhhhhh,” she said.

“Mm. Sounds rough,” Louie sympathized.

“Is this about you convinced Lena to come on an adventure so you could have the life-threatening circumstances do your flirting for you?” Huey asked. “Because I’m still pretty sure that’s not how emotional bonding works.”

“I just—her  _ hand!” _ Webby seethed under her breath, quietly. “It keeps slipping out of my grasp, like a beautiful, shining fish slips back into the bountiful sea.”

“Have you considered just  _ asking _ her if she wants to hold hands?” Dewey suggested.

Webby’s eyes bugged out, and she threw a glance over her shoulder at Lena. She was too busy bugging Scrooge with sarcastic remarks to be listening in, thankfully. “Are you  _ crazy? _ I can’t be that direct with her!”   


Dewey raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Because—because—gah, look, isn’t it obvious?” Webby huffed. “I would ask her, but I would be a blushing, stuttering mess, and then she’d be like ‘Uh, what was that, Pink?’ and then I’d say something stupid like how pretty her face is, and then I’d have to run away to Nigeria.”

“You may be overthinking this,” Huey said. “And I have a lot of experience with overthinking.”

Webby sighed. Maybe Huey was right. She could do this; she was Webby Vanderquack, brave adventurer! Only now, she was faced with the most dangerous adventure of all: she had to brave the wilds of Lena’s heart.

First step: less sappy figurative language. Or would Lena appreciate that? She  _ was _ a poet, after all. Or was that just because spell incantations had to rhyme, so she wrote poetry to practice spellcasting? Gah! She needed more information!

“Did Lena say anything to you while you all were exploring together?” Webby asked. “Anything about, I don’t know. Me? Maybe?”

“Oh,” Louie said with a smirk, “she might’ve said a couple things.”

Webby leaned forward. “Really? What?!”

Louie shook his head and pulled his hands out of his hoodie for the express purpose of performing a dramatic shrug. “I couldn’t say. I’m sworn to secrecy.”

“WHAT?!” Webby screeched, then threw a glance over her shoulder. Lena was staring at her curiously. She gave her an awkward wave, then turned back to Louie and, much more quietly, said,  _ “What?!” _

“By ‘secrecy,’” Dewey said, “he means that he’s scared of what Lena would do to him.”

Louie just shrugged again in a ‘maybe so’ sort of way.

“Yeah? Well  _ maybe _ Louie should be scared of what  _ I’m _ gonna do to him if he  _ doesn’t _ tell me,” Webby said, stretching up as tall as she could.

“Please,” Louie said. “You would never sacrifice your moral standard of never hurting family, even to satiate your giant crush on Lena.”

“He’s got you there,” Huey said.

Webby frowned. “Darn it. Sometimes I hate being nice.”

Louie laughed. “Same, Webs.”

* * *

So Webby was being weird, Lena thought to herself. And not the cute kind of weird, but the uncomfortable kind of weird. It was like she was hiding something. That wasn’t a very weird thing to do at all, really—everybody lies, all the time, about everything. But not Webby. Webby was weird like that. So her hiding something, a very regular-person thing to do, was very weird.

Lena had noticed it a couple times so far on this trip, but it had really blown up just now when she’d run up to talk with the Terrible Triplets; maybe she was just nervous having Lena around on her adventures now? Lena was certainly nervous to have Lena around on an adventure. Well, whatever it was, Lena was determined to never bring it up and hope it would just go away on its own.

Before too long, the tunnel opened up into a larger room. There were several standing torches along the walls, and at the end of the chamber was a big door frame, blocked off by a stone wall decorated with an elaborate pattern of multicolored squares. On the floor in front of the door was a similar grid of colored squares, but not identical.

“A  _ puzzle,” _ Scrooge groaned when he saw it. “I  _ hate _ puzzles.”

“Ooh, a puzzle!” Huey exclaimed, running up to the floor pattern. “I  _ love _ puzzles!”

“C’mon, Uncle Scrooge!” Webby said. “It’s like an investigation! We have to look for clues, and patterns, and make logical deductions!”

“Oh, I’m  _ well _ aware of how puzzles tend to go,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “Come on, Della; I think I’m going to need your help with this one.”

The four of them approached the door while Lena stayed back with Dewey and Louie. “You not gonna be helping them?” Lena asked.

“This isn’t really our area of expertise, so to speak,” Louie said.

Dewey nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Huey’s the nerd.”

Louie shrugged. “I doubt we’d really think of anything they wouldn’t, so we may as well kick back until their finished.”

“I’m down for that,” Lena said, flopping down onto her back. “Hey, you don’t happen to have any of that crappy soda you like on you, do you? I’m craving caffeine.”

“Pep is not ‘crappy,’ it is a delicacy, and you will treat it with  _ respect,” _ Louie said. “Also, no, I drank all of my reserves on the flight over.”

“Bummer.”   


The conversation ended there, with Lena laying down on the ground. The temple floor was cold and hard and uncomfortable—just like she’d gotten used to before she’d met Webby. She let the sound of the others’ bickering fade into the background, let her eyelids flutter shut for just a second, and breathed deeply. God, adventuring was more tiring than she’d expected.

She’d just rest here for a second, in the dumb puzzle room. Keep herself sharp for whatever was lurking behind that big stone door. She definitely got a ‘lurking’ feel from that door; she hoped it was something she could beat the shit out of. She didn’t know why but she was really yearning for a good fight right about now. There was probably something to unpack there, but that was a tight fucking suitcase and Lena wasn’t about to break out the crowbar on it just yet. 

She heard some people shouting, which was honestly so annoying. Some people were trying to take a nap here.

“LENA!” Webby screamed.

Lena shot up, spluttering. “What? I’m awake. What’s going on?”

“Your arm!” Webby shouted. She began running over.

Lena looked down at her arm; it looked fine. Then she looked at her  _ other  _ arm, which was conspicuously absent. There wasn’t any blood or anything—she didn’t think she had any of that. It was just, not there anymore.

She blinked. “Oh my god, how did I sleep through  _ that?” _

“AAAH I’M SO SORRY!” Huey cried from in front of the puzzle-door. “I hit the wrong thing and, and a buzzsaw came out across the floor, and, and, your arm—it just went  _ flying—” _

Lena looked over and saw her severed arm lying by his feet. “Oh, wow. Yeah, it sure did, didn’t it.”

“Um.” Della blinked. “Why aren’t you bleeding?”

“Better question,” Louie said from next to her, pointing at her limbless shoulder. “What’s up with  _ that?” _

Lena looked, even though she already knew what she’d see. Instead of… whatever it looked like when normal ducks lost their arm (Lena wasn’t particularly sure), the empty socket of her shoulder was hollow and vast, a window into a swirling black void, and within that void, several dark, amorphous shadows drew closer.

_ The light! I can TASTE it! _

The words echoed in Lena’s head, and by the looks on their faces, in everybody else’s as well.

_ Queenschild! It’s me! About that deal—  _

_ Get out of the way, you dolt; this is my chance! _

_ YOUR chance? Ha! _

Webby reached her and put a hand on her shoulder. The other one, the one that wasn’t currently a portal to the Shadow Realm. “Are you okay?”

“Just peachy,” Lena grumbled.

“Lena, what’s happening?” Dewey shouted, clamping his hands over his ears; like  _ that  _ would help. “What’s wrong with your arm?”

“It’s a shadow thing, okay?” Lena hissed. 

An inky, spiked tentacle pushed its way out from her shoulder, writhing about and causing Webby to yelp and jump back. 

“Lordy,” Scrooge said, pinching the space between his eyebrows. “This is why you don’t mess around with shadow magic, kids.”

Lena used her remaining hand to wrangle the shadowy tentacle back inside her body. “Stupid—eldritch—horrors!” 

_ Ow! _ it protested.  _ I thought we were friends, fragment. Can’t I visit my friends? _

“We’re not friends! ” Lena spat downwards, stuffing it the rest of the way inside and keeping her hand clamped over her shoulder-portal. She turned to Huey. “Look, I’ll explain later, but for now, just throw me my arm!”

Huey got on his knees and poked at the spare limb. “This arm?”

_ “WHAT OTHER ARM IS THERE?” _ Lena roared. She could feel things scratching and prodding at the palm of her hand, desperate to get out.

“Well, jeez, you don’t have to shout at me,” Huey said, daintily picking up her arm by the index finger. 

Louie stuck out his tongue and leaned away. “Ewww, this is so weirrrrrd.”

Huey held Lena’s missing limb at arms length as he slowly walked over towards Lena. A shiver ran down her spine as a warm, wet sensation spread across her palm.

“Ack!” Lena glared down at her shoulder. “Did someone just  _ lick  _ my  _ hand?” _

“Oh, gross,” Webby said, even as Louie repeated his “Ewww” from earlier, but with more passion.

Lena frowned. “Okay, which one of you was that?”

_ If you let me out, Lena, I’d be happy to tell you. _

_ Yeah, because it was you, you mortal-pleaser! _

_ What?! Liar! I’ll show you just how pleasant I am! _

A telepathic scream of agony shot out from somewhere within her. Lena looked up. “Uh, guys? They’re getting antsy!”

“Faster, Huey!” Webby instructed.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Huey said, even as he continued to treat the arm like a nuclear bomb.

“Just throw it!” Della shouted.

“Okay, fine!” Huey said, lobbing the appendage across the room. 

Webby jumped up and snatched it out of the air. “Got it!” she said triumphantly, landing back on the ground next to Lena. She looked down at it, lying limp in her hands, and frowned. “Um. What do we do with this?”

“On the count of three,” Lena said, “shove it back into the socket.”

Webby’s eyebrow rose. “Just… shove it in there?”

Lena nodded. “Just shove it in there.”

“Make sure it’s the right way ‘round,” Scrooge advised. “Trust me, there’s nothing worse than getting yer arm screwed on the wrong way.”

Della gave him a strange look, but didn’t say anything.

“Ready?” Lena asked. Webby nodded. “One… two… three!”

Lena removed her hand from her shoulder, and instantly a shadowy, clawed fist shot out of it. It uncurled its fingers in a strictly non-euclidian manner to reveal a dotting of small eyes on the palm.  _ Finally! I can see the light; it’s calling to— _

“HIYA!” Webby shouted, slamming Lena’s loose arm back into its socket. Lena immediately activated her magic and stitched her shoulder back together with tiny threads of shadow, that disappeared into the fabric of her sweater once their work was complete. The shadowy arm, cut off at its biceps, dispersed into a fine black mist.

She rotated her arm around experimentally, and, finding everything to be up to speed, smiled down at Webby. “Thanks.”

“Anytime!”

“So,” Dewey said. “What was that all about, Lena?”

“Um.” She giggled nervously. “I’m not exactly… supposed to exist out here in the mortal plane? Like. I’m a shadow, shadows are supposed to stay in the Shadow Realm… You get the picture.”

“What does that have to do with the monsters of darkness living inside your body?” Della asked. She sounded genuinely curious.

“Look, I don’t know the specifics, okay? But I’m, like, a point of connection between the two planes, I guess. A point of vulnerability in the Veil. If I get cut open it creates a little portal, and they can use that to get out, or something.” She shrugged. “Every time this has happened before, Magica was there to keep them back, so all the ‘stopping them from escaping’ stuff is new to me.”

“And whose ‘they?’” Scrooge asked suspiciously.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Lena said, “but you don’t know any of them. They’re old.  _ Really _ old.”

Webby tapped a finger against her chin. “I read about a bunch of stuff that lives in the Shadow Realm when I was doing research to get you back. I wonder if they’re anything I know about… maybe shades?”

Lena shrugged. “No clue.”

“Got it!” Huey called suddenly from up by the door. He was poking at all the squares, pushing them inwards in a precise order. “I was originally going by pigment-based color theory, but  _ then _ I realized that the Talongass is known for its prismatic crystals, so  _ obviously _ I should’ve been using light-based color theory, which as everyone knows is very different.”

“Good thinking, lad,” Scrooge said. “With any luck, this will be the vault door, and the untold treasures of the Talongassians lay right behind!”

“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to be treasure?” Louie asked dryly.

Lena was inclined to agree with him. Huey pushed in the final tile, and the door began to slide up into the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's a harsh break, but I had to cut this chapter somewhere lmao. Four is on its way, and I'm _very_ excited for it... it's got the scenes that really made me want to start this fic in the first place. Thanks so much for reading, and I'll see you then!


	4. Sundered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena asks a friend for help. Webby makes progress.

Lena watched in apprehension as the puzzle-door slid upwards, revealing a huge, torch-lit chamber. It was filled with a practical mountain of treasure, and that was all Louie needed to see before losing all signs of his former cautiousness.

“Oh, finally!” he called out, jumping up and running forward. He shoved Huey out of the way and belly flopped onto a pile of gold coins, letting out a contented sigh.

The rest of them followed after him at a more subdued pace, though from the back of the pack, Lena could see the twinkle in Scrooge’s eye.

“Now this,” he said, “is what I call a treasure room.”

“I’ll say,” Webby said, picking up a solid gold vase from a nearby pile. “This is almost as much as what Atlantis had.”

“You know, I never got the point of dumping a bunch of treasure in a big pile,” Lena said. “Shouldn’t you be, like, investing it?”

Scrooge gave her a look.  _ “Investing _ is for people who are too lazy to make money themselves, so they piggyback off of others. A  _ real  _ adventurer can appreciate a good treasure pile.”

“Woah!” Dewey gasped. He had clearly tuned Scrooge out words ago, and was pointing up towards the peak of the biggest money pile, against the far side of the room. “Look at that axe!”

Lena followed his vision, and sure enough, a massive, ornate axe was poking out from the gold. It was hard to tell exactly how long it was with its handle submerged into the coins, but the blade, at the very least, was frighteningly massive.

“Be careful, Dewey,” Della called. “Remember to lift from the core, and swing with—”

“And swing with the hips, yeah, yeah, I know!” Dewey said, scampering up the gold pile.

“Are we sure we should be messing with the giant axe?” Huey said. “How many cursed axes have we found on previous adventures that came alive and tried to kill us?”

“And we  _ always survive,” _ Louie countered. He was now wearing several different pieces of golden jewelry, and his hoodie pocket was overflowing with gold coins. “It’s totally worth it.”

“Hey, Lena!” Webby said. “You’re magic! Does the axe look cursed to you?”

Lena shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not exactly an expert in artificery or enchantment. But… I  _ guess _ I don’t sense any aura from it?”

“Great! I’ll be right up, Dewey!” Webby threw her a smile before running after Dewey, who was currently trying and failing to wrench the axe out of the gold pile. Webby hopped past him and motioned for him to move out of the way; he complied, and then she delivered a staggering jumping round-house to the flat of the blade.

“Damn,” Lena mumbled.

“Don’t go swooning on us now, shadow girl,” Louie said over his shoulder as he dug through a nearby stack of treasure. 

Lena grabbed his big stupid head in her telekinesis and plunged it through a priceless tapestry.

Slowly, and with a mighty groan, the axe began to tip over, sending streams of coins skittering down the slope. Dewey and Webby cheered and high fived as the axe continued to fall, until, abruptly, it stopped.

Dewey looked confused. “Um. What?”

“Maybe I just need to hit it again,” Webby said, punching her palm. “Another Webby Special, coming right—uagh!”

She was cut off as the pile of gold began rising up, scrambling to keep her footing as the gold cascaded down onto the ground. Out from under the mountain of treasure, a great, humanoid figure stood up, the axe clenched in its hands. It was uncomfortably muscular and garbed in tattered leather armor, and its head was some weird demon… donkey… thing, yeah, Lena had no clue. Webby managed to grab onto one of its horrid demon-donkey ears, and Dewey, screaming his brains out, grabbed her around the middle. 

Lena tried not to be jealous.

“Woah, what the heck is  _ that?” _ Louie yelped.

“A minotaur!” Scrooge said. “A ruthless creature driven only by its instinct to slaughter!”

Huey pulled out his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook and frowned. “Um, aren’t minotaurs supposed to have the upper body of a bull, not a… whatever that is?”

“I think its supposed to be a horse,” Louie said.

“I dunno.” Lena scratched her head. “It looks too ugly to be a horse.”

“Now, kids, don’t be mean,” Della admonished.

“HELP!” Dewey shouted. The ‘minotaur’ roared and shook his head, launching him and Webby through the air. Webby managed to recover and flip herself upright, and Della sprang forward, catching Dewey. 

“Gotcha,” Della said, placing Dewey on the ground and standing in front of him. “Behind me, boys!” Louie wasted no time following her instructions, and Huey followed absentmindedly, his eyes frantically searching his guidebook for a solution. Lena wasn’t optimistic, but, hey, maybe his nerd book would finally come in handy.

Meanwhile, Webby landed on a nearby pile of treasure and yanked a glittering spear out of its depths, catapulting it at the Minotaur with deadly accuracy. He deflected it with a downward swing of his axe, but that brought it close enough to the ground that Scrooge could hook his cane around the neck, just under the blade. 

“Ha-ha!” Scrooge exclaimed, pulling the Axe in such a way that the minotaur was thrown off balance. “Best be mindful where ya swing that thing, eh?”   


Lena saw her chance and channeled her magic outwards, long and thin, like a glowing blue rope was shooting out of her fingers. She twirled it around the minotaur’s leg, then yanked hard. It roared as it stumbled, and it was forced to let go of its axe in order to avoid falling on its face. Scrooge dove to safety in a conveniently-located coin pool as the massive weapon slammed to the ground, sending up clouds of dust and gold alike, and the minotaur himself followed soon after, slamming down onto his hands and knees and shaking the ground in the process.

“Woo! Go Lena!” Dewey cheered. He started to run forwards, but Della caught him by the back of the collar and pulled him back in.

“Nope. That one’s too big, little guy.”

Dewey sighed. “Fine.”

“Why didn’t you use that rope thing on the bridge?” Huey asked. “It probably would have worked.”

“I didn’t have a lot of time to think. Why didn’t you just not break the bridge in the first place?” Lena returned.

Louie shrugged. “I don’t know, Lena, kinda feels like you’re shifting the blame here.”

Lena ignored him and instead turned to Webby, who was using a shield to slide down the pile of coins she was on. “Lena!” she called. “Can you fling me at him with your mind?”

“You mean with my telekinesis?” Lena glanced at the minotaur, who was rising back onto his feet. “I mean, I guess. Just right at his face, or what?”

“Yeah, the face would be great!” Webby chirped. “Like Granny always told me before bedtime: when fighting a giant, go for the eyes!”

“Sounds like Tea Time, all right,” Lena mumbled. She concentrated, and hefted Webby up into the air with her magic. “You ready?”

“Ready!”   


Lena loosed a grunt of exertion as she propelled Webby through the air, letting go of her with one final pump of magic. Webby soared across the room straight at the once-again-upright minotaur, skirt fluttering, bellowing out a war cry and extending one leg in a flying kick. It was beautiful to behold.

And then the beast reached out a hand and, like a fly ball into a catcher’s mitt, she smacked into his palm.

“Webby!” cried out five voices at once, while Lena just watched, stunned, as the minotaur curled his fingers around her small body. Scrooge was wailing on his shin with his cane, but the monster easily sent him sprawling with a flick of his ankle. 

The minotaur squeezed, and Webby let out a pained cry. Lena felt her temper flare, and she lashed out with bright blasts of magic, but they were like mosquito bites against the minotaur’s tough, armored hide. Webby turned her neck to shoot Lena a terrified glance; her lungs didn’t seem to have enough room to form words, but Lena got her message.

_ Help. _

“LET HER GO!” Lena screamed, running forward; or maybe gliding, or flying — she couldn’t quite be sure with all the emotionally fueled magic coursing through her. Her mind filled with images of Webby and without her even trying, she was suddenly engulfed in the bright blue light of her friendship bracelet. When it cleared, she was in Webby’s place, wrapped up in the minotaur’s hand.

With a roar of power, Lena flared her telekinesis. The minotaur’s fingers were blown radially outwards, back past where they probably should have bent, and the rest of him was thrown hard against the back wall of the treasure chamber, cracking the stone in crude, uneven webs. Lena found herself floating in place, eye level with her prey, and began to speak. The words flowed out of her like they’d never flown before; except, perhaps, for those few poems of hers she had written about a certain friend. 

_ “Of magic made, of Shadows born _

_ I call upon those Souls forlorn; _

_ To remove you from this Mortal plane _

_ I rend the very Veil in twain.” _

Lena felt the shadow magic rush through her as she chanted, spiraling out of her core and clouding her vision until all she could see was black.

_ You called, Witchspawn? _ The voice came from just next to her, but still impossibly out of reach.  _ I knew you couldn’t resist us. _

_ Hey, _ Lena thought.

An eye here; a tentacle there.  _ Ah, it speaks! Are you finally ready to make an arrangement, fragment? _

_ No contracts, _ Lena thought.  _ Just a gift. Are you hungry? _

_ Always. _

_ Then eat up.  _ Lena gripped the Veil in her magic and ripped it apart.

* * *

Webby watched from the ground as a wispy dark glow exploded around Lena as she finished her incantation. The minotaur, smart enough to know that whatever was happening would probably not end well for him, began backing away, but Lena threw out a hand, and he froze mid-step, hopelessly straining against her telekinesis. A swirling pool of shadow appeared under Lena on the temple floor, and it began steadily growing in size, causing floods of golden coins and jewelry to spill into its abyss. The minotaur was soon trapped entirely within its diameter, and then, like a lighthouse switching on, a giant, slitted eye appeared in the center of the dark whirlpool. It cast an eerie spotlight up at the minotaur’s face and blinked, long and slow—to Webby, it felt like it was licking its lips. 

Webby took a shaky step back as a black tendril shot upwards from the inky darkness and lashed itself around the beast’s arm. It roared and struggled, but couldn’t pull away, even as a second wrapped itself around its leg. One after another, the shadowy ropes shot up from the pool, and wrenched the minotaur to its knees.

The minotaur clawed helplessly at the waves of plummeting treasure as it was dragged into the darkness, roaring for all it was worth, but it couldn’t do anything as it was fully pulled below the surface, disappearing into the depths of the Shadow Realm. The eye in the ground flashed a vibrant purple, and then just like that, the portal vanished, leaving Lena floating a foot off the ground in its wake. She was hanging suspended in the air, limbs limp, her head lolled back and her eyes paved pitch black. She was mumbling something unintelligible under her breath, fast and low and in a language Webby didn’t recognize.

“Lena!” Webby shouted, running over. “Are you okay?”

The muttering stopped, and her head snapped over towards Webby’s voice. The darkness drained out of Lena’s eyes like tears, fat globs of black liquid dripping down her cheeks and onto the ground before dispersing into the shadows like scared mice running back into their holes. Once her appearance was back to normal, she dropped out of the air, and her sneakers made a  _ tap-tap _ against the stone as she landed.

Her eyes met Webby’s. “I’m… I’m sorry, I just—”

“No!” Webby said, mentally pushing the existential terror out of her expression. “No, it’s… you’re fine. You saved me. Thank you.”

“Sorry,” she repeated quietly.

Scrooge adjusted his spectacles. “Well. That was…”

“Horrifying,” said Huey, who was scribbling in his guidebook.

“Awesome! But horrifying,” said Dewey.

Louie—who was hiding behind Della, just barely peeking out past her hip—just looked pale.

Lena must have seen him, because she looked away. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she echoed. Webby wished she’d stop saying that.

“What  _ was _ that thing?” Della asked. “Was that what was trying to get out of your arm back in the puzzle room?”

“Uh, yeah, one of them.” Lena said. “Gregg tends to hang out near the surface, so they’re easier to contact.”

Webby raised an eyebrow. “Gregg?”

“Short for Greggilathleyon. They’re a creature from the Shadow Realm. We talk sometimes.”

“You’re friends with that…  _ thing?”  _ Della asked hesitantly.

“I wouldn’t say ‘friends,’ exactly,” Lena clarified. “More like, he keeps trying to convince me to let him into the moral plane so he can feast on the souls of the living.”

“Great, just great. Now I’m going to have to learn how to sleep with the lights on,” Louie said.

“I’m really sorry you guys had to see that,” she mumbled. “I just… Webby was in danger, and…”

“Are there… others?” Huey asked cautiously.

“Yeah,” Lena said. “They’re kind of all like that. Most keep to themselves, but there are a few that always try to get buddy-buddy with me. I was stuck with them for a  _ while _ when Magica trapped me in the Shadow Realm.”

“That must’ve been awful,” Webby said. “I’m so sorry.”

Lena shrugged. “Don’t apologize. It wasn’t your fault.”

“It’s not yours, either, you know,” Webby said firmly. 

Lena was silent. Ugh, she was doing it again; Webby could tell. Why couldn’t she see that she wasn’t responsible for all of Magica’s nastiness? Next time Webby saw that old hag, ooh, there’d be fists. 

Off to the side, Dewey was looking suspiciously at his own shadow. “Wait. So, are all of our shadows secretly out to eat our souls, or something?”

“Nah, most shadows never develop consciousness,” Lena said. “Gregg and the others are exceptions. Like, I lived in the Shadow Realm for ages before Magica gave me a body, but I wasn’t self aware yet, so I don’t remember it. All of your shadows are dormant, for now.”

“Well that’s an ominous way of putting it,” Louie mumbled.

“Heh,” Lena said. It was a dry laugh. Then she faltered, eyes darting around the chamber nervously from duck to duck. “I’m… why are you all… taking this so easily? I thought you’d all be scared of me. I’m… this is Magica’s magic.”

Webby frowned. “Oh, Lena…” 

“For the record, I’m terrified of you,” Louie said. “But in, like, the same way I’m terrified of Webby. It’s a respectful fear.”

“You may have Magica’s powers, lass, but you are nothing like her,” Scrooge said, stepping forward. “I’m beginning to realize that magic’s not good or bad; its the person who uses it that is. And while I may not have had the best luck with spellcasters in my past, you’ve really been teaching me a thing or two about how it can be used for good.”

“I fed that minotaur’s immortal soul to an insatiable eldritch shadow horror,” Lena said.

“Well, yes,” Scrooge admitted. “And while in the future I would encourage you to consider a slightly more  _ discreet  _ approach, you did what you had to do to save the people you care about. And there’s no shame in that.”

“I…” Lena shrunk into herself, her face conflicted. “But what if this… goes to my head? I’m Magica’s fragment, after all, we can’t just  _ ignore _ that. Or, what if I end up making a deal with one of them out of desperation, and they break free and hurt you all? I don’t know what I’m doing, not  _ really.  _ What if—”

Webby cut her off, wrapping her arms around Lena and pulling her into a hug. “We  _ trust _ you, Lena. And I know you know that, because I keep telling you, but you never  _ listen. _ And I know you don’t really trust yourself, but—but you trust  _ me, _ right?”

“Of course,” Lena said immediately, returning the hug and burying her beak into Webby’s hair. “With my life.”

Webby felt her cheeks heating up, but she had to keep it together now, for Lena. She could freak out about this to the boys all she wanted once they were back home. 

“Then  _ trust me,”  _ Webby said into Lena’s sweater, “when I say that you’re a  _ good person.  _ Okay? I don’t care what you did in the past, I don’t care what kind of magic you use, I don’t care if you screw up, I don’t care if you have blood or shadows keeping you alive—you’re a good person, whether you like it or not, and I’m going to keep  _ saying _ it until it gets through your  _ stupid, pretty head!” _

Webby squeezed her eyes closed and plunged deeper into Lena’s chest as she finished her speech, afraid to look up at her face. 

She heard Lena sniffle a little, and hiccup. “Dammit, Pink, you’re ruining my makeup here,” she whispered. 

Webby giggled a little before finally managing to convince herself to pull away. She almost leapt out of her skin when she saw her family standing off to the side, watching them. She’d kind of forgotten they were there. Judging by Lena’s blush, so had she. 

Della was watching the scene with a face full of motherly pride, while Scrooge just looked on fondly. Meanwhile, the triplets ran the range of emotion, from a simple smile (Huey) to smug knowingness (Louie) to very obviously trying not to burst into tears (Dewey).

Lena coughed. She wasn’t crying, but her makeup, sure enough, was a mess, and Webby’s forehead was a tiny bit wet. “So. Are we looting this treasure or what?”

“Yes!” Scrooge said, whirling around and raising his cane to the skies. “Let’s get a move on, people! We don’t want to know if this temple has any more hidden surprises, do we now?”

Webby glanced at Lena; she was still looking a bit rattled, even as the triplets ran past her to grab as much of the treasure as they could carry. She reached her hand out to touch Lena’s arm, but then pulled back, unsure. In the end, she just settled for a small, “You okay?”

Lena smiled at her. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

Webby gave her one last smile before running off to help the others.

* * *

It was on the flight back to Duckburg that it happened. 

They were sitting next to each other, and Webby knew the time was right. Silently, stealthily, she let her hand sliiiiiide across the armrest until it found Lena’s. Lena turned at the touch, but didn’t pull away, sending Webby a soft smile as their hands curled into each other. They were both blushing, and Webby was letting out a nervous, giddy giggle, but she didn’t care, because soon Lena was giggling too, and they were just looking at each other, and— 

“Webby, Lena, please,” Dewey called from across the plane. “ _Some_ of us are trying to watch Darkwing Duck.” 

“Yeah, it’s hard to hear over the sound of you two being  _ gross,”  _ Louie said.

“But I can hear just fine?”

“Shut up, Huey.”

If Lena had been about 15% more magical, Webby was pretty sure the look she gave the triplets would have disintegrated them.

“Boys, am I right?” Webby asked.

Lena rolled her eyes. “Boys.”

Part of Webby wanted to skip a few steps and kiss her right then and there, just to see how the boys would react, but the other, louder part of Webby would literally, actually die if she did that, so she restrained herself. She did, however, continue to hold Lena’s hand for the rest of the trip home, and even after that, all the way up to their room and onto their bed. It was just as nice as Webby had imagined—no, better, even. It was warm, and soft, and so very, very  _ real. _

“So did you have fun?” Webby asked.

“I mean.” Lena shrugged. “There were ups and downs.”

“Well thanks for humoring me, at least.”

Lena laid her head on top of Webby’s. “It’s what I do best, Pink. Now make some room—I never got to take that nap in the temple. I’m beat.”

Lena wriggled her way under the covers. Webby laughed, hopping off the bed. “I’ve got something to take care of, but I’ll join you in a bit.”

Lena mumbled something into the pillow; probably either a ‘sure, okay’ or a ‘how could you leave me in my time of need, you monster.’ Lena seemed to pick randomly between the two whenever this happened.

Webby stole out of her bedroom and scampered down the stairs. Lena moving in to live with her was probably one of the best things that had ever happened, in, like, all of history (besides the triplets moving in because that was arguably a prerequisite to Lena), but it did mean that it was pretty hard to hide things from Lena. Not that Webby needed to hide much, really—she knew Lena wouldn’t go through her diary or anything—but there were certain things she didn’t want to take chances with. 

She slipped into one of the lesser-used hallways of the mansion, and opened up one of Scrooge’s many, many fake paintings, one she had found years and years ago, to reveal a small alcove. There, pinned up on the back wall of the secret cubby, was a large piece of poster paper. At the top, written in big, loopy glitter pen, was the title: “Webby’s Seven Step Strategy for Success.” And then under that, a list of objectives.

  1. ~~Convince Lena to stay in the mansion~~
  2. ~~Help her through her nightmares :(~~
  3. Hold her hand!! Romantically…?!?!
  4. Discover a life-changing secret of the universe together
  5. Kiss… Aaaah!! Under the light of the full Moon? (Ask Selene)
  6. Lena asks me out!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  7. WE ARE GIRLFRIENDS!!! <3 <3 <3



Letting out a satisfied sigh, she picked up the pen that lay at the poster’s feet and, slow and deliberate, crossed off number three. She was knocking through this list like a champ! Everything was comin’ up Webby.

“Hey, Webs! Whatchya doing?” Dewey asked from behind her.

All three of them were there. Webby yelped, flailed her arms, and accidentally launched the glitter pen straight into Huey’s face. “DEFINITELY NOTHING WEIRD,” she screeched.

“Ow,” Huey observed flatly as the pen dropped to the carpet.

Dewey just raised an eyebrow. “So what is ‘definitely nothing weird’ this time?”

Webby gulped, trying to close the painting back up as surreptitiously as possible. “Oh. You know.”

“Uh-uh, no you don’t,” Louie said, stepping forward and putting himself in the way of the painting. “You’re not stopping me from seeing… your…” He narrowed his eyes. “Your plans on how to flirt with Lena?”

“Ooh! Ooh! Let me see!” Dewey said, rushing forward. 

“Guys…” Webby wished she had Lena’s shadow powers right now. What she wouldn’t give to be able to melt into the Shadow Realm and escape this.

“I know we already kind of brought this up back in the cave,” Huey said, eyes scanning the list, “but you could always ask her out yourself, instead of concocting an elaborate plan to get her to ask you.”

“Have you  _ met _ Webby?” Louie asked. “Look, I think this strategy is really solid.”

Webby gasped, breaking into a smile. “Really?!”

Louie shrugged. “I mean, it got you this far, right? And Lena’s not a girl you can just, like, get flowers for and then that’s that.”

“Yeah, but…” Huey frowned. “I’m not sure this is all… necessary? I mean, Lena already likes—”

“Hanging out with you,” Louie swiftly interrupted. “So taking her on a life-changing journey of discovery shouldn’t be too hard.”

“ We can help!” Dewey exclaimed.

“Yeah, we can—” Louie’s eyes bugged out. “Wait, WHAT?!”

“We can totally be your wingmen, Webby!” Dewey said.

“Aw, guys!” Webby clasped her hands together. “You’re the best brothers a girl could ask for. Lena’s waiting for me upstairs, but we can work out the details tomorrow! Thanks again!”

With that, she took off down the hall. Yes! With Huey, Dewey, and Louie by her side, her strategy would work for sure! Those three were… Well. They always managed to make it back from their adventures alive, so that was something?

Hmm. Maybe she should’ve thought this through a little more before letting them help.

Eh, it’d probably be fine.

She burst into her room to find a  _ very _ sleepy Lena, who was lying facedown on the pillows, her hair a complete mess. She turned her head to the side as Webby approached, freeing her beak.

“There you are,” Lena mumbled. “Get over here.”

Webby let out a small ‘Meep!’ as she was lifted by Lena’s magic and yanked into bed.

“Wow, Lena,” she said once she was settled under the covers. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that you liked snuggling with me or something.”

“Shut up and start cuddling, Pink,” Lena mumbled.

Webby giggled, but complied, and before too much longer they were drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you think the fic would be over by now? Because I did. But it's not! Surprise!
> 
> I'm gonna take a short break to build up a backlog and really figure out where I'm going with this story. There's also another fic unrelated to this one I want to try to push out, for a certain AU. This one should resume before too much longer though.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Oh, and happy holidays to those of you celebrating! I'll see you in the next one.


	5. We Three Schemes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which many people wake up in undesirable manners.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter this time while I try to sort out some future events in the story. I'm hoping to hit weekly updates, but we'll see what happens!

“We can totally be your wingmen, Webby!” Dewey said.

Louie groaned. They had just been going to the kitchen for a snack when they’d stumbled upon Webby and her super cheesy checklist, and now thanks to  _ Dewey, _ they were going to get dragged into the utter mess that was Webby and Lena’s love life. God; he could really go for a pep right about now.

“Aw, guys!” Webby clasped her hands together. “You’re the best brothers a girl could ask for. Lena’s waiting for me upstairs, but we can work out the details tomorrow! Thanks again!”

Huey, Dewey, and Louie stood in the hallway, watching as Webby disappeared around the corner.

“Oh, nice going, Dewey,” Louie said once she was gone. “Why’d you rope us into this?”

“You were the one who encouraged her plan!” Huey accused.

“Because it was gonna be hilarious!” Louie said, throwing his hands in the air. “I thought that was obvious!”

“Then why are you so against helping?” Dewey asked, crossing his arms.

“Be _ cause,” _ Louie stressed, “this is  _ Webby and Lena.  _ They have an unbreakable magic bond, sleep in the same bed, and have the most obvious crushes on each other I’ve ever seen, and they’re  _ still _ not together?! I don’t even know where to  _ start!” _

Dewey frowned. “So, what, you just wanted to watch them flounder without helping?”

“Yes! God! Again: I thought this was  _ obvious.” _

“Louie, they’re our friends,” Huey said. “And like you said, they  _ clearly _ like each other. Helping them out is the least we can do.”

“Fine!” Louie said, throwing up his hands. “Fine, whatever, I’ll help you wingman. But you guys don’t know what you’re getting yourselves into.”

Huey shrugged. “I mean, they’re practically dating already. How hard could it be?”

“I have a feeling we’re about to find out,” Louie grumbled.

* * *

_ “WEBBY!” _

_ She was back in the cave. She could see Webby, held in the clutches of the monster, making breathless cries for help as the life was squeezed out of her. She ran, but the shadows stuck to her feet like tar, slowing her and tugging her down below. Something cracked—Webby screamed. _

_ “WEBBY!” _

_ She couldn’t even hear herself anymore. The cave was growing darker, grayer, muted, and she saw pitch-black shadows racing up the walls until the whole cave was replaced by a featureless void.  _

_ She still couldn’t run anywhere. Webby was still screaming. She wanted to help, but as she raised her hands, all she saw were gnarled claws. She roared, desperate and angry, and her magic lashed out on its own, sending glowing cracks splintering throughout the void. One speared Webby through the chest, and the screaming stopped.  _

_ Things went downhill from there: her roaring got louder and her throat began hurting, her magic went even wilder, and the cracks started spreading faster. Before she knew what was happening, the whole void shattered like an urn toppled from the mantel, falling down in pieces all around her, and all that was left behind was her own raw, bellowed cries of misery, and her magic, which still whipped about savagely, searching for something else to break apart in all the nothingness. _

Lena’s eyes snapped open, and she let out a harsh gasp. A dream. Right.

She closed her eyes and rolled over so she was on her back, forcing herself to regulate her breathing. She knew that some people screamed at nightmares; she was glad she wasn’t one of those people. That way, she never woke Webby—that way, nobody had to know. Webby still thought that she’d been nightmare-free ever since that shared dream they’d had on their Friendiversary, and Lena wasn’t about to shatter that illusion for her. And it’s not like it was every night now, or anything like that. This had been the first one all week. That was a normal amount of nightmares for someone to have, she was pretty sure. Not like she knew, really, but still. She was fine. It was fine.

She began the process of falling back asleep. It was usually pretty easy: just remind herself that it was all a dream, cuddle up against Webby, and think thoughts that were, admittedly, pretty gay. God, the boys were in her head now. Whatever.

But when she reached out her hand to do that second step, all she felt was a pile of cold blankets. She opened her eyes and frowned.

“…W-webby?”

Oh, god, where was she? Was she okay? All Lena could think about was her dream, Webby’s screams, the lance of magic cutting through her vest—

The loft suddenly erupted into blue light, and Lena vanished.

* * *

Webby burst into the boys’ bedroom, only feeling somewhat sorry for them as she yelled “WAKE UP!” right at their bunk bed. As they groaned and stuffed their pillows over their ears, she began setting up a portable whiteboard at one end of the room.

Huey was the first to shake off his grogginess, poking his head out from over the top of the bunk bed. “Webby? It’s, like, six. Why are you like this?”

“Because Lena’s still asleep!” Webby said, placing the whiteboard onto its easel. “We need to go over the plan.”

“What  _ plan?” _ Dewey whined.

“Exactly! What plan  _ indeed!” _ She wrote ‘Objective: Formulate Plan’ on the top of the board. “C’mon, sleepyheads! We’ve got work to do!”

“I told you guys,” Louie mumbled into his pillow. “I warned you, but did you listen to me? Nooo. Nobody listens to  _ Louie. _ I had our best interests at heart, but you thought I was being  _ selfish.” _

“Webby, is this about wingmanning?” Dewey asked. He was sitting on the edge of his bed now, rubbing at his eyes.

“Well, we did promise to help,” Huey said. He sighed and climbed down the ladder, Dewey hopping down to the floor after him. 

Louie didn’t move. “And whose idea was that again? Right—not mine.”

Huey grabbed him and pulled him out from beneath his pillows. He fell flat on his face, letting out an apathetic “Ow.” He picked himself up slowly; he was grumbling under his breath, but didn’t look like he was planning to retreat back under the covers. 

Webby smiled at them. “Thanks so much for helping me, you guys!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Louie said, patting away his beadhead. “Look—I’ma be real with you, Webs. If we’re really gonna do this, then you need to chill out with the whole ‘cosmic revelation’ part of your plan.”

“W-what? You mean the ‘Discover a life-changing secret of the universe together’ step? But it’s so romantic!” Webby protested.

“It’s also obnoxiously difficult and will probably almost kill us,” Louie said. “So I think it might be worth it to stick to traditional romantic conventions here.”

Webby sighed. Darn it; she had been really looking forward to that part. “I suppose that makes sense. What did you have in mind instead?”

“Oh!” Dewey jumped forward, grabbing a marker from the tray and popping its cap. He began drawing a picture of a crude Webby and Lena fighting back against a horde of axe-wielding stick figures. “Danger always pushes people closer together, right? Maybe if we trap you in a room with a couple monsters, then—”

Huey swiped the marker out of his hands. “That already happened, remember? That whole thing with the minotaur and Lena going all shadow-demon?”

“Yeah but they  _ did _ hold hands afterwards,” Dewey pointed out. “So we  _ know _ it works.”

“I don’t want to put Lena into any situation that makes her lose control of her magic like that again,” Webby said. “I was… really scared for her, and I don’t think it was good for her psyche at all.”

“Well, how about something less drastic, then? But still similar to treasure hunting,” Dewey proposed. “Like grocery shopping!”

Louie raised an eyebrow. “Grocery shopping? Oh, yes, how romantic.”

“The quest for milk,” Dewey said grandly, making a dramatic arc with his hands. “Will they succeed? Only if they work together!”

“I don’t know, Dewey,” Webby said.

“We’ll come back to it,” Louie assured, but something about the way he said it made Webby doubt his sincerity. “Huey, did you have a pitch?”

“Yes, actually. Thanks for asking, Louie.” Webby watched, hopeful, as he pulled the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook out from under his sleeping cap. With his free hand, he began sketching an elaborate mirror above the heads of the Webby and Lena that Dewey had illustrated, and topped it off by drawing a big heart in the center of the mirror. “I was recently reading about this one ancient magic mirror—it’s said to bring out people’s truest feelings and desires. And get this: it’s apparently a  _ huge _ hit at preteen sleepovers!”

Webby cocked her head to one side. “Sorry?” 

“Think truth or dare, but more intense. You know, statistically, more crushes get revealed during sleepovers than any other event for our age demographic.”

“Well… I  _ guess _ it might work,” Webby said. “It’s better than grocery shopping.”

“That was a  _ good idea _ and I  _ stand by it _ ,” Dewey insisted. “Where do we get this mirror, anyway?” 

“Oh, Scrooge has it,” Huey said. “Apparently he recovered it from a funhouse haunted by the ghost of a traveling circus about forty years ago.”

Louie rolled his eyes. “Of course he did. Look, we don’t need some magic artifact to get these two idiots together.”

Webby crossed her arms. “Hey! Lena’s not an idiot!”

“…As I was saying,” Louie continued, sharing a glance with his brothers, “there’s a surefire way to get Lena to realize and admit her feelings for you—we’ve gotta make her feel like if she doesn’t act fast, she’ll lose her chance.”

Dewey scratched his head. “You mean, like, kidnap Webby and pretend to be a villain that’s going to kill her unless Lena declares her love for her within twenty four hours?”

“What? No. I mean get someone else to pretend to flirt with Webby. Add in a little competition.” Louie approached the board and drew a third, generic stick figure next to Lena and Webby. Then, he added angry eyebrows to Lena’s face. “As soon as Lena sees someone else going after her, she’ll feel jealous, and then she’ll have to confront  _ why _ she’s jealous, and then she’ll realizes she loves Webby. Easy money.”

“No!” Webby said. “No. We’re not doing that one. That’s mean!”

Louie shrugged, capping the marker and tossing it onto the tray. “Well, if you don’t want Lena to fall in love with you, then I guess you can continue trying to hold her hand until she decides she wants to marry you, or whatever your current plan is.”

Louie was staring at Webby with that eternally nonplussed expression of his, and she found herself sweating a little. It was mean, but… Louie  _ did _ seem to know what he was talking about. Would that really work? Graah, this was so  _ hard… _

“That’s our last resort,” Webby decided. “We’ll try Huey and Dewey’s plans first.”

“Sweet!” Dewey said. “Grocery shopping time!”

“That’s fine with me,” Louie said nonchalantly. “It’s not like their plans are going to work, so we’ll get to mine eventually. If you want to drag this out, I’m not gonna stop you.”

“We’ll see about that,” Huey mumbled.

Webby clapped her hands. “Great! It’s decided, then. Huey first, then Dewey, then—”   


“Wait, I want to go first!” Dewey said. “Huey  _ always _ goes first!”

“Okaayyy…” Webby looked at Huey, who shrugged. “So, Dewey, then Huey, then Louie.”

“Hey, Webby? Your bracelet is glowing,” Louie pointed out. 

“Hmm?” Webby looked down at her friendship bracelet, which was beginning to shine with bright blue light. “Oh, crap! Lena! Quick, hide the—”

In a burst of magic, Lena appeared right in front of her, face to face; thankfully, she was looking away from the triplets and the whiteboard.

“Webby!” Lena exclaimed. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”   


“Lena? What’s going on?” Webby asked, taking her into a hug. With Lena’s face over her shoulder, Webby gave the triplets a meaningful look.

‘Hide!’ she mouthed.

‘Where?’ Dewey mouthed back, indignant.

‘Figure it out!’

“I’m sorry, I—” Lena sniffled a little. “Sorry. I had a nightmare, and then when I woke up, you weren’t in the bed, so I freaked out a little and that must have activated the bracelet’s magic.”

“A nightmare? Oh, Lena, I’m so sorry, I should’ve been there.”

She watched as Huey, Dewey, and Louie awkwardly scurried under their bed. Webby noticed the white board that was still very much right there, with her and Lena and a  _ heart _ on it, and she shot the triplets a look.

‘The BOARD!!’ she mouthed.

‘Really?’ Louie responded. ‘She’s gonna see us!’

Lena, oblivious to what was happening behind her, went on. “No, it’s—you’re not responsible for babysitting me. It’s not on you to—”

“But I’m your  _ friend, _ Lena,” Webby insisted. She ignored the way the triplets rolled their eyes at that. “I should’ve been there to comfort you.”

She turned back to the boys after she was done speaking. ‘DO IT!’ 

They nodded and silently scurried out from their hiding place. 

Webby returned her focus to Lena, finally pulling back from the hug. “Do you want to go back to sleep, or…?”

“No, I’m awake now,” Lena said. She raised her wrist and looked at her bracelet. “Hmm. I wonder why we didn’t swap this time.”

“Dunno,” Webby said. She struggled to keep a straight face as Dewey nearly knocked over the whiteboard, but thankfully Louie caught it right before it could clatter to the floor. Huey snatched the markers and gave the easel to Dewey, who tried to fold it properly before quickly giving up and instead hiding it under Louie’s blankets. “I’m kind of new to having friendship magic.”

“Same. It still triggered because I was feeling strong emotions towards you—worry, by the way, no other emotions or anything haha—but it must be evolving or something. God, I wish I knew how it worked… if we’re not prepared, this could cause some real problems.” Lena finally took the time to look at her surroundings, right as the triplets disappeared under the bed. “Why are you in the boys’ room? It smells in here.”

“Oh, you know, I was just, uhhh.” Webby gulped. “Looking… for… blackmail material?”

“Really?” Lena smiled, hitting her lightly in the arm. “I’m proud of you, Pink. But don’t worry, I’ve got plenty already. Did you know that Huey has an ‘anonymous’ account on Yahoo Answers? It’s really funny; he gets suuuper heated.”   


“Haha, no, I didn’t know that,” Webby said, trying desperately not to look towards the bed, where, out of the corner of her eye, she could see the screen of Louie’s phone instantly light up, accompanied by a low hiss from Huey that she couldn’t make out. “Hey, why don’t we go get some breakfast? I haven’t eaten yet, I’m  _ starving.” _

“Sounds great.”

“And…” Webby twiddled her thumbs as they walked out of the bedroom. “Maybe… you’d like to tell me about your nightmare?”

Lena’s expression immediately darkened. “I’d rather not.”

Webby swallowed. “R-right. That’s fine. Well if you ever want to talk—”

“I know,” Lena said, reaching down and squeezing her hand. “Thanks, Webby. I mean it.”

Webby smiled up at her. Maybe… maybe she didn’t need a grand scheme after all. Maybe she could just tell Lena how she felt.

Ha, no, that was ridiculous. “So, Granny said she wants us to go get a few things from the grocery store…”


	6. Lena Versus Grocery Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing like little errand to make the heart grow fonder. Or, at least, that's what Dewey had said; Webby still isn't sure he was entirely on the mark.

Webby was walking with Lena through town, armed with one of Scrooge’s credit cards that he’d given her a couple months ago and then forgotten about. They were headed towards the closest grocery store to the manor, which was still obnoxiously far away—though, that  _ did _ mean more time to spend with Lena, so Webby would forgive it this time. 

They kind of already did spend a lot of their time together, though, and so far nothing on the walk to the grocery store had exactly propelled their relationship to the next level. Really, the most interesting thing that had happened was Lena getting hit in the face by a loose plastic bag caught in the wind, which, while pretty funny, was not very romantic. Like, at all. So Webby still wasn’t convinced that Dewey had been worth listening to.

“What are we actually getting from the store?” Lena asked.

“Oh, uh.” Webby blinked. “I  _ definitely _ know, hold on, uh… Granny texted it to me, just a second…”

Webby pulled out her phone and brought up her messages with Dewey.

**You:** Dewey, help! We’re almost at the store and I need a fake list of stuff to get!!

**Dewey:** dont worry i got you

**Dewey:** eggs

“Eggs,” Webby said.

“Is that it?” Lena asked. “Because if that’s all it is I’m gonna hurt Beakley.”

**You:** Dewey I need more than just eggs!!!

“No no no, there’s more,” Webby assured. 

**Dewey:** peanut butter, idk, fruit… 

**Dewey:** oh, cookies, and those little cupcake things

“Peanut butter, uh, apples and bananas… Dewey wants cookies and cupcakes…”

“And Beakley approved that?”

**Dewey:** louie says pep

“No, not really,” Webby admitted. “Sorry, lemme just—”

**You:** Dewey I need believable ideas! Real things that adults need!!

**Dewey:** right sry

**Dewey:** milk, flour, carrots, soup, uhhhhh

**Dewey:** beer

“Milk, flour, carrots—”

“Okay nevermind, I’m bored,” Lena said. “Anything actually interesting?”

Webby paused for a moment. “Um. Beer?”

“Be—Webby.” Lena gave her a  _ look. _

**You:** Gotta go thx

Webby slipped her phone back into her pocket. “What? It’s, uh, on the list?”

“Really? Beakley sent us out to buy alcohol, something we are legally unable to do?”

“Maybe she forgot is was on there?” Webby suggested with a shrug.

“…Huh,” Lena said. “Well, it might be fun to see if we can get away with it. Not to, like, drink it or anything, because just so you know alcohol tastes  _ disgusting,  _ but some of my fondest memories before I met you are of committing misdemeanors.”

“Kinda like a miniature adventure!” Webby said. This was starting to get exciting! “But the enemy is the  _ law.” _

Lena smirked.  _ “And, _ Beakley can’t get mad at us, because it was on the shopping list  _ she _ told us to complete!”

“Um, yeah! That’s… all true!”

“And what do you know,” Lena said. “Here we are!”

Webby stared up at the looming supermarket before them, its ‘automatic CAUTION doors’ practically begging to be opened, inviting her into the lion’s den. The Food Lion’s den, if you will. It was time… Time to buy a bunch of groceries they didn’t need and try to steal some alcohol. Romance!

She decided to blame Dewey.

“We, uh, don’t have to try to buy the beer if you don’t want to,” Lena said. “Beakley will live.”

“No! No, it’s gonna be fun,” Webby said. “Let’s do some crime!”

“Yeah, maybe don’t say that so loudly, though.”

“Sorry.”

* * *

While Webby and Lena were out going grocery shopping, Huey had decided that the three of them should get a jumpstart on the plan that actually had a chance of working—the Mirror of Absolute Truth. Currently, he was in the garage along with Dewey and Louie, searching through stacks of ancient artifacts for any mirrors.

After stumbling upon the fifth magical lamp, Huey stood up wiped his brow. “Whew. There’s a lot more stuff in here than you’d think. Are you guys having any luck? Oh, nope, you’re both just on your phones.”

“Okay, in my defense, Webby’s texting me,” Dewey explained. “What should they buy from the store? Webby doesn’t have a real list.”

“Pep,” Louie said without looking up from his own phone.

Dewey tapped a bit. “Um, she says she needs things adults buy.”

Huey tapped a finger against his chin. “Let’s see. Flour, milk, eggs, carrots, soup…”

“Beer,” said Louie.

Huey gasped. “Louie!”

“What? It’s a thing adults buy!”

Huey turned to Dewey. “Do  _ not _ tell Webby to buy beer!”

“Uhh.” Dewey looked down at his phone. “Too late.”

“God. Let’s just find this stupid mirror.”

“What stupid mirror?”

Huey yelped and swiveled around. Standing in the doorframe to the garage, arms crossed and eyes suspicious, was Scrooge McDuck.

Drat.

“U-Uncle Scrooge!” Huey said. “We were just looking for, uh—”

“A mirror, eh?” Scrooge said. “Could this be some sort of ancient magical mirror with untold powers?”

“If we answer honestly will you let us use it?” Louie asked.

Scrooge looked at him for a moment before saying, “Perhaps.”

“The Mirror of Absolute Truth,” Huey said. “Also, it doesn’t have untold powers, because its powers are documented in my guidebook, so that would be more like told powers.”

Dewey rolled his eyes; Huey scoffed. Some people just couldn’t appreciate the importance of clarity in language, it would seem.

“Now why would you kids need an ancient relic like that?” Scrooge asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are ya doin’ an interrogation? Is this some sort of hostage situation, or…?”

“What? We’re not interrogating anyone!” Dewey protested. “We just want to use it to get Webby and Lena to fall in love!”

“What an idiotic, irresponsible, immoral, and frankly  _ insulting _ use for a priceless magical artifact,” Scrooge said. “There is no way on  _ Earth _ that this idea of yours would end in anything other than  _ complete disaster.” _

Huey leaned forward and flashed Scrooge his best smile. “I’m not hearing a no!”

“Then you’re not reading in between the lines,” Scrooge said, unmoved.

“C’mon, pleaaase?” Huey begged. “It’s for a good cause!”

Scrooge stared at him for a long while before sighing and shaking his head. “Fine. I’ll show you where it is.”

“Yes!” Huey said, pumping his fist.

“This is gonna be good,” Louie chuckled, finally putting his phone away as the three of them followed Scrooge down the halls of the mansion.

* * *

Lena dumped a couple cans of soup into the shopping cart and turned to Webby. “Is this everything?”

Webby leaned over and looked inside. “Let’s see… eggs, peanut butter, apples, bananas, flour, milk, carrots, soup, cookies for Dewey, pep for Louie, 20% reduced fat granola bars for Huey so he doesn’t feel left out… Yeah, that’s everything, except for the, uh.” She paused, looking around as if to make sure nobody was listening, and then whispered, “The  _ you-know-what.” _

“You mean the alcohol?” Lena gave her a flat look, and began pushing the cart down the aisle. “You know, we really don’t have to do this if it makes you uncomfortable. I won’t think you’re uncool or whatever; you are, like, the coolest person I know, so don’t worry about it. Also don’t tell Dewey I said that, it would break him.”

“No no no, Lena, I  _ want _ to!” Webby insisted, jumping in front of the cart and grabbing onto it, causing Lena to stumble.  _ Damn _ she was strong. “This is something you used to do all the time, right?”

“Petty crime? Yeah, I guess. I wasn’t exactly in a great place financially or emotionally or mentally or physically, so.”

“I’m not saying it should be a regular thing,” Webby said. “But I would like to be able to relate to that part of you a bit better.”

“By buying some beer at a Food Lion,” Lena said. 

Webby nodded enthusiastically.

_ Oh, Webby…  _ Lena sighed, then shrugged. “Sure. Let’s do this.”

Webby hopped up on the front of the cart, and Lena wheeled them over to the part of the store that carried alcohol. There were a lot of different kinds of beer here, and Lena didn’t really know jack about any of them, so she just decided to put it in God’s hands. “Which looks best to you, Webby?”

“Hmm… How about this one?” She reached up and grabbed the only pack in the whole aisle with any pink on it. 

Lena smiled. She should’ve known. “Sure.”

Webby handed it to her, and she was just about to put it into the cart when a voice spoke up from behind her. 

“Now, I’m not sure you young ladies should be buying that stuff.”

Lena turned around to face the man who had spoken. He was an older duck—not, like,  _ Scrooge _ old, but still old—and he was wearing a really gaudy dress shirt with watermelons on it. Lena found herself subconsciously generating sarcastic remarks about his fashion choices, but managed to suppress them. She needed to handle this tactfully. 

“I’m twenty-one,” she said matter-of-factly. 

“You don’t  _ look _ twenty-one,” the man argued. 

“I also don’t look like any of your business, but that didn’t seem to stop you.” Crap, one slipped out.

“Nice one,” Webby whispered from the side. 

“Where are your parents?” the man asked.

“No clue!” Webby said. 

“I’m a shadow golem born of dark magic,” Lena said. 

“Kids these days,” the man mumbled. “Look, why don’t you just put back the drinks, and we can forget about this.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Lena grabbed the pack of beer and slid it back onto the shelf—but once it was far back enough that the man couldn’t see it anymore, she waved her hand, and the beer disappeared in a puff of black mist. “Come on, Pink, let’s go.”

Webby gave her an awed, conspiratorial look as they walked away. Once they turned the corner, Lena waved her hand again, and the drinks appeared in her palm. 

“Ta-da,” she said, dropping them in the cart.

“Wow, Lena! I didn’t know you could do that!”

“I just stored it in the shadow realm for a bit,” she explained. “It’s a neat trick, but I can’t use it too much. Last week I had a bag of chips stolen.”

“Stolen?” Webby asked. “Like, by Gregg?”

“Nah, Gregg isn’t much for material possessions, actually,” Lena explained as they pulled up to the fifteen-items-or-less check out aisle. “Vicky’s a hoarder, though. She’ll just take stuff if I leave it there for too long, and then it’s really obnoxious to get it back.”

“Vicky?”

“Another shadow demon. I’d tell you what Vicky is short for, but saying her name three times summons her and I’m not gonna take that chance.” She pushed the cart up a little farther to keep up with the line. “Remember when I lost my arm? She was the other one there besides Gregg trying to get out. They don’t get along very well. She was a big Magica fan, he wasn’t; she’s also, like, super pretentious.” 

As she and Webby started putting their groceries onto the conveyor belt, Lena broke into an impression of Vicky’s voice, which was weirdly similar to her Beagle Bird voice, now that she thought of it.

“Oh, Queenschild!” she mocked. “That book that was here was  _ yours?  _ Why, I simply had no  _ idea!  _ You should really keep a better eye on your things, Lena. Say, I’ll return it to you if you’re willing to strike a deal!” Lena stuck out her tongue. “Ugh. There’s a reason I called upon Gregg to deal with the Minotaur rather than her.”

“Um… Lena?”

“What?”

Webby gestured to the conveyor belt; Lena has been so caught up with her rant that she’d put the beer on the belt with all the other groceries, instead of putting it back into the Shadow Realm until they were out of the store. Crap.

“Okay, this is—this is fine,” Lena murmured, both to Webby and to herself. “Just act natural.”

When the cashier reached the alcohol, she paused, looking up at them.

“She’s twenty-one,” Webby said cheerily, pointing at Lena. 

The cashier stared at them for a while, her face betraying no hint of emotion. Finally, just as Lena was contemplating snatching the groceries and making a break for it, she scanned the pack. “Your total is $34.86. Do you have a rewards card?”

“Um.” Lena blinked. “No.”

“Cool,” said the cashier. 

Webby paid with Scrooge’s credit card, and then they took the groceries and left the store. 

“That went a lot smoother than I expected,” Webby said as they crossed the street to make their way home.

“Tell me about it,” Lena agreed, looking down at her bag. “Let’s hope Beakley likes pink beer.”

* * *

Dewey and his brothers followed Scrooge through the mansion all the way up to the master bedroom, where he opened one of the various walk-in closets. This one in particular was filled with various mirrors of all shapes and sizes.

“‘Ere we go!” Scrooge announced. “The magic mirror closet!”

Dewey raised an eyebrow. “You have an entire closet just for magic mirrors?”

“People really like ta put curses on mirrors. They think it’s some sort of profound symbolism or what have you, but really it’s just cliche, if ya ask me.” He began rifling through the closet. “Let’s see here… Mirror of Eternal Darkness, Mirror of Greater Introspection, Mirror of Dubious Duplication, Mirror of Light Reflection… Aha! The Mirror of Absolute Truth.”

He pulled out a mirror with an elaborate silver frame, standing just a bit taller than the triplets themselves. “Just make sure ya don’t knowingly lie to the mirror, or it  _ will _ try to kill you,” Scrooge instructed. “You kids have fun!”

“Thanks Uncle Scrooge!” 

With that, they hefted up the mirror and lugged it back downstairs to their room. Dewey kicked the door closed with his foot, and they propped the mirror up against the bed. 

“So, how does this work?” Louie asked. “Is there an on switch or something?”

“Louie, it’s a magical mirror,” Dewey said. “We probably need to like, perform some ancient ritual to use it.”

Huey was staring at his guidebook. “It actually says here that it’s clap-on.”

Louie immediately clapped his hands as loud as he could. The Mirror of Absolute Truth flashed, and rose a few inches into the air, its surface erupting in a brilliant light. 

**“The Mirror of Absolute Truth awakens!”** bellowed a voice from the glass.  **“Speak ye any falsehoods before me, and swift shall be your—”**

Louie clapped again, and the mirror lost its glow, flopping back against the bed. “Well, it’s working,” he said. 

Just then, Webby burst into the room, carrying several grocery bags. “Hey guys,” she said. She dumped the bags on the floor, and took notice of the Mirror of Absolute Truth. “Oh, you got the mirror!”   


“Yep!” Huey said.

“How’d grocery shopping go?” Dewey asked, leaning forward. “Did it work? Did you kiss?”

“No!” Webby said. “We didn’t kiss, and it didn’t work! It was like, super boring, for the most part. And now I have a bunch of food I don’t know what to do with!”

“Did you get the pep?” Louie asked.

Webby chucked a six pack of pep at him, which he caught effortlessly. She also passed Dewey a thing of cookies, which immediately made him start salivating, and then gave Huey some of those awful granola bars he liked, which, equally immediately, made him stop salivating.

“Oh, twenty percent reduced fat!” Huey exclaimed happily, opening the package.

“You disgust me,” Dewey mumbled, shoving a cookie in his mouth.

“You’re just mad your plan didn’t work,” Huey said. “Speaking of which, the mirror is here whenever you two are ready, Webby.”

“We’ll do it tonight,” Webby said. “Lena likes a few hours of notice before anything social like a sleepover.”

“Don’t take too long,” Louie said. “There are other plans to get to, you know.”

“You say that like this one won’t work,” Huey said, “which is strange, because it’s definitely going to work.”

Louie cracked open a pep and took a long sip before replying, “Mmhmm.”

“But yeah, that sounds good, Webby,” Dewey said. “See you then!”

“See ya!” she said, giving them a wave before running out of the room, presumably to meet back up with Lena.

Dewey began rifling through the bags of groceries she’d left on the ground, but stopped cold. “Oh my god, they actually got beer.”

“Wh—seriously?” Louie set down his pep and crawled over to the bags, taking out the beer cans, which were pinker than Dewey had ever thought beer could be. “Woah.”

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” Huey panted, flapping his hands nervously. “We have to get rid of it. We should—we should burn it. Or, or, or bury it. Right now! If Donald finds out—or Scrooge—or Beakley—or  _ Mom—” _

“Relax, dude,” Louie said. “It’s not that big a deal.”

“Not that big a— _ Louie!” _ Huey gasped. “It’s  _ against _ the  _ law!” _

“We’re related to Scrooge,” Dewey said. “Nobody’s gonna arrest us.”

“He does have a point about Mom, though,” Louie said. “She can  _ not _ find out about this, or she might go all psycho-grounding on us again.”

“On you again,” Huey corrected. “You mean on _you._ _Some_ of us are very law-abiding, whether those laws be related to the spacetime continuum or to the legal drinking age.”

Dewey put his hands on his hips. “Well then what should we do with—Huey?”

He was currently trying to open up their bedroom window, fiddling with the screen. “I’m chucking it outside,” he said. “Every second it stays in this room, the chance of us getting caught goes up. It’s stressing me out!”

“Are you an idiot?” Louie said. “They’ll find it out there, and they’ll be able to see that our room is  _ right next to where it landed! _ Just leave this to me; all we need is a little…  _ camouflage.” _

* * *

Bentina Beakley, after finishing up all the household chores for the day (assuming the kids managed to keep themselves out of trouble this evening), opened one of the top cabinets in the kitchen, hoping to maybe pop open that new bottle of wine Scrooge had been given at that charity event some time ago. He would hardly notice it had gone missing, especially since the man himself tended to prefer harder stuff. 

Much… much, much harder stuff.

What Bentina did not expect to see, however, was a pack of bright pink beer cans awkwardly shoved behind the wine bottles.

“…What,” she declared flatly. 

She had grown fairly familiar with the drinking habits of all the adults in the house over the past year, so either Della had terrible taste in alcohol, or something fishy was going on here. 

Bentina poked her head out of the kitchen and into the dining room, where Della was reading some aeronautical magazine. “Della?”

“Hm?” She looked up. “Oh, heya, Mrs. Beakley. What’s crackalackin?”

Bentina raised an eyebrow. “Sorry?”

“What’s up?” Della amended.

“Do you drink pink beer?”

She made a face. “Excuse me? That exists?”

“I see,” Bentina said. “I’ll see you… crackalater.” 

Della made another, different face at that, so Bentina pulled back into the kitchen before she could say anything. She eyed the incriminating cans up on the alcohol shelf with a leer. Something fishy was indeed going on here, and she was going to find out what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: The Ultimate Sleepover Game, feat. The Mirror of Absolute Truth.


	7. Truth or Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleepover 2: Hard Mode

Lena climbed down from the loft and dumped her sleeping bag down on the floor of Webby’s room. Webby herself was already here, along with the byos, setting up their own sleeping arrangements. The room was organized in typical sleepover fashion, with all of Webby’s stuff pushed to the walls to make room for sleeping bags. Only, this time, something was  _ definitely _ out of place. “Okay. What are you guys hiding under the sheet?”

“What sheet?” Huey asked with a shrug.

Lena pointed to the large, thin square object that was currently propped up against the wall, covered in someone’s bedsheet. “The one that’s emanating a concerningly powerful magical aura.”

Huey laughed nervously. “O-oh,  _ that _ sheet! My bad.”

Louie rolled his eyes. “I  _ told _ you she’d be able to sense it.”

“That’s the main event!” Dewey said excitedly, running over and yanking the sheet off with a dramatic flourish. Underneath was a large, ornate mirror, which Lena was immediately not a huge fan of. “Ta-da! The Mirror of Absolute Truth!”

“Nope,” Lena said. “We are  _ not _ messing around with magic mirrors.”

“C’mon, Lena,” Webby said, taking her hand. Lena couldn’t help but give it a squeeze in return. “This’ll be fun!”

“…Right,” Lena mumbled. “Fun. What exactly are you planning to do with it?”

Huey waved his hands in a grand arc. “Imagine Truth or Dare, but with a hundred percent less dares, and a  _ thousand _ percent more truths!”

“Oh yay, I love revealing personal secrets about myself,” Lena said flatly.

“But,” Louie pointed out, “you get to learn a bunch of personal secrets about all of us, too.”

Lena hummed and tapped her chin. “Hmm. Compelling. Granted, I already have enough dirt on the three of you to last a while, but I guess there’s no harm in being prepared. Still, I dunno. I just  _ know _ this is gonna go wrong somehow.”

Webby looked up at her with pleading eyes, which, come on, that was just cheating.

“Alright, fine, I’m in.” Lena let go of Webby’s hand and flopped down onto her sleeping bag. “How are we doing this?”

“We’ll take turns asking questions,” Huey explained as they arranged themselves in a semi-circle around the mirror. “You can ask anyone anything on your turn, but only one question at a time. Who wants to start?”

“I’ll start,” Louie said confidently. He clapped his hands, and the Mirror of Absolute Truth burst into being; Lena felt its magical aura surge, and it began floating off the ground a few inches, bathing them all in a brilliant light.

**“The Mirror of Absolute Truth awakens once more!”** came a disembodied voice from the mirror.  **“Speak ye any falsehoods before me, and swift shall be your damnation!”**

_ Well jeez, _ Lena thought. Why did all these ancient magical artifacts feel the need to be so dramatic all the time?

Louie cleared his throat. “Dewey, was it you who spilled soda on my DSi five years ago and broke it?” 

Huey scoffed. “Seriously?  _ That’s _ your question?” 

“Inquiring minds want to know!” Louie insisted. 

“Ugh, fine!” Dewey said, throwing his hands in the air. “Yes, that was me. Happy?” 

**“He speaks the Truth!”** said the Mirror of Absolute Truth.

“No! I’m actually quite mad!” Louie said, pointing at his brother accusingly.

“Dude, we were, like, six!” Dewey protested.

“Oh, always with the  _ excuses,” _ Louie sneered.

Lena smirked. “You know, maybe this  _ will _ be fun.”

“Haha, okay!” Webby laughed nervously, breaking up Dewey and Louie before they could maul each other. (Shame; Lena would have liked to see that.) “Dewey, your turn!”

They settled back into their spots in the circle, and Dewey put a finger to his chin, making a big show of examining everyone in turn. “Hmm… let’s go with… Louie. What’s your guiltiest pleasure?”

Louie scowled. “You’re the worst.”

“Answer the question, green boy,” Lena taunted.

“I know, jeez!” He took a deep breath. “Look, sometimes, I… I like to watch nature documentaries after you guys fall asleep. They’re comforting.”

**“He speaks the Truth!”** said the Mirror of Absolute Truth.

“Wh— _ that’s  _ your guiltiest pleasure?” Dewey spluttered.

“Yes! It’s embarrassing!” 

“I watch nature documentaries too,” Huey said. “They’re fascinating! If you want recommendations—”

“Ugghhh, see what I mean? Now I have something in common with  _ Huey,”  _ Louie groaned. “Okay, enough with the fluff questions—we need the juicy stuff. Webby, you’re up.”

“Um, okay.” Webby looked around, her eyes finally settling on Lena.

Lena gave her a small smile. “Hit me, Pink.”

“Right. Uh, so, Lena. Do you…” Webby swallowed, bunching up the fabric of her sleeping bag in her fists. “Do you like girls?”

Lena’s mouth flopped open. “I—what?”

“Like, romantically?” Webby shook her head. “Sorry, sorry, that’s personal and I shouldn’t have asked it, I’m an idiot, look you don’t have to answer if—”

**“The participant must answer the question hence put forth, or face the consequences,”** warned the Mirror of Absolute Truth.

“Sorry,” Webby mumbled again.

“No, I’m just… surprised,” Lena said. “Like, obviously? Of course I like girls.”

**“She speaks the Truth!”** said the Mirror of Absolute Truth.

“I thought you knew,” Lena added.

“How was I supposed to know?” Webby asked, ignoring the mirror.

“Um, have you looked at me?”

“Yes, constantly,” Louie muttered under his breath. Lena ignored him.

Webby blushed. “I—well—you’re not supposed to judge people based on what they look like, and—”

“Webby, are  _ you  _ into girls?” Lena interrupted. She turned to the mirror. “That’s my question, by the way.”

“U-um. Yes,” Webby said.

**“She speaks the Truth!”** said the Mirror of Absolute Truth.

“Neat,” Lena replied.

Internally, by the way, she was screaming. Had been for a while, actually. The two of them had been staring at each other ever since Webby had started asking her question, and now they were both blushing, and they had both just said they were gay, so that was, like, on the table, and—and why did Webby  _ ask _ that question in the first place? Why did she need to know? Lena had some theories, but she didn’t want to overcommit because what if she screwed things up? She shouldn’t assume! She shouldn’t assume anything! Gah, this was so  _ hard,  _ and they were  _ still staring at each other! _ Just right into each other’s eyes like it was the most normal thing in the world! Also, she  _ knew _ that the boys knew what was happening, because they had  _ totally _ figured out about her crush on Webby back in the cave, and, haha, wait, no, she didn’t have a crush on Webby, shut  _ up _ brain, shut your  _ god damn face— _

“Huey, you have the last turn,” Lena said calmly, finally looking away from Webby’s beautiful eyes. “Better make it a good one.”

“It will be,” he said, smiling and rubbing his hands together. “Oh ho ho, it  _ will _ be.”

Lena saw Louie and Dewey exchange a worried glance, but nobody said anything.

“Lena,” Huey began.

Oh no. What was he planning? Lena gave him a very pointed look, putting on her best ‘Do you want to get sent to the Shadow Realm?’ face. 

Huey, very annoyingly, only smiled wider. “Who do you have a crush on?”

Shit. God dammit. God—ugh. 

“You’re assuming that I have a crush on someone,” she said neutrally, trying to keep her cool.

“Oh, we  _ know _ you have a crush on someone,” Louie said, hands stuffed in his pockets. He had on his classic Louie ‘gotchya’ face that he wore whenever he knew he’d won.

Lena grit her teeth. This had been a trap! This  _ whole _ sleepover had been a trap! She  _ knew  _ it! Ooh, she should’ve dipped at the first sight of that stupid, stupid mirror! 

“I don’t have a crush on  _ anyone!” _ she shouted, slamming a fist against her pillow.

**“THE SHADOW SPEAKS LIES!”** cried The Mirror of Absolute Truth, its voice growing shrill and anguished, like it was in physical pain.  **“HORRID, RANCID LIES!”**

“Shut up!” Lena hissed, jumping to her feet. She punched out a fist and shot a blazing orb of magical energy at the mirror, but the glass warbled and changed into a deep orange right before her attack could collide with it, and the magic fell through the surface like it was a portal.

The Mirror of Absolute Truth began hovering high up in the air, surrounded by an ominous orange glow.  **“PREPARE TO BE PUNISHED, YOU WHO UTTERS UNTRUTHS BEFORE ME!”**

“This is bad,” Dewey observed, backing up. “This is very bad.”

“Oh gosh, oh gosh,” Huey cried, clapping his hands together frantically. “Guys, it won’t turn off!”

“Die! Stupid mirror!” Lena shouted, hurling more spells at the artifact. All her attack spells just got absorbed into its surface, and she couldn’t seem to grab it in her telekinesis or transmogrify it. All the while, it drew closer and closer, the magical aura around it growing so strong that she was sure she’d be able to feel it even without her own attunement.

“Just answer the question!” Louie called. “It’s gonna kill you!”

**“QUIVER UNDER THE WEIGHT OF YOUR SINS!”** it bellowed, before zooming towards her with frightening speed.

Several things happened very quickly in that moment.

First, Webby screamed “LENA!” in a tone of utter horror.

Second, Lena splashed down into the shadow realm mere seconds before the mirror was upon her.

Third, Webby launched herself across the room to tackle Lena out of the way. But she wasn’t there anymore, so she ended up landing on her face right in front of the mirror.

Fourth, the Mirror of Absolute Truth slammed against the ground, Webby underneath it; when it rose again, she was gone.

_ Webby! _ Lena screamed—or, well, whatever the telepathic equivalent of screaming was.

A presence brushed up against her in the dark.  _ Say, Queenschild, I noticed you left some alcohol in here a while ago. Any chance you might be able to part with a little to soothe an old frie— _

_ Go choke, Vicky, _ Lena hissed.

She shot herself out of the shadows, soaring through the air and diving into the surface of the mirror. It parted like water, and everything went white.

* * *

Bentina Beakley exited the kitchen with a huff. If Della hadn’t bought that beer, then that left two possibilities: Launchpad, or the kids. But she had just seen Launchpad in the garage a few hours earlier trying to hook up rocket propulsion to a segway, and it had looked like he had been there a while, so that left the children as her prime suspects. 

She approached the door to Webby’s room and set her face into something which she hoped would evoke fear and compliance. She heard a curious series of thunks from behind the door and raised an eyebrow. What was going on in there? Well, no matter; she was there to find out one thing, and she wouldn’t let their antics distract her.

Without further hesitation, she burst into the room, putting her hands on her hips and looking down at the three boys that were sitting there. “Which one of you snuck alcohol into this house?” She then noticed the mirror they were staring at in horror, hovering ever-so-slightly in the air. “And why is that mirror floating?”

**“One question at a time, strong one,”** bellowed the mirror.

“Huh,” Bentina said.

“We didn’t sneak alcohol into the house,” Louie said after a second, seeming to choose his words carefully. None of them were taking their eyes off the mirror.

**“He speaks the truth!”**

Bentina glanced at the mirror, then back to the boys. “Okay. Who did?”

“Lena and Webby,” Dewey said.

**“He speaks the truth!”**

“Really? That girl, I swear. I thought she was kicking those old habits by now.” She paused, and squinted at the mirror. “Is… Is this the Mirror of Absolute Truth?”

“Yes,” Huey said.

**“He speaks the truth!”** said the Mirror of Absolute Truth.

“Well, that explains why you three are cooperating for once,” she muttered. She glanced down and noticed five sleeping bags on the floor, and only three children. She let out a weary sigh. “Did the Mirror of Absolute Truth eat the girls?”

“I wouldn’t call it eating, exactly, since it’s a mirror,” Huey said. “So, no?”

**“He speaks the truth!”**

“Oh, come on, that’s a technicality!” Louie protested, glaring at the mirror. “He should totally get eaten for that one!”

“Not eaten!” Huey reminded him.  _ “Absorbed.” _

Bentina narrowed her eyes. “I’m guessing that playing with the mirror was your idea; if so, you young men are in a  _ lot _ of trouble.”

“Wh—but Scrooge said it was fine for us to use it!” Louie said. “He gave us permission.”

**“He speaks the truth!”** said the mirror.

“Then Scrooge is  _ also _ in a lot of trouble,” she said simply. “Dewey?”

His head snapped to her. “Y-yes?”

“Ask me a question.”

Dewey gulped. “Um, okay. Are… you going to go easy on us because we were using the mirror for a good cause and our plan almost worked?”

She gave him a flat look. “Yes.”

**“LIES! FILTHY, FOUL LIES!”** screeched the mirror.

“I’ll be back in a few,” she said, rolling up her sleeves. A second later, the mirror engulfed her, and everything went white.

* * *

One second, Webby was lying flat on the floor, and the next, she was standing upright in a featureless white void. She looked around blankly, and tapped her foot against the floor, which was perfectly indistinguishable from everything else. The thing about featureless white voids was that it was impossible to tell how big they were; she could just as easily be in an infinite plane as she could be in a five-by-five foot box, and she couldn’t even be sure which was true if she started walking because what if she were just being teleported back to where she started before she reached the walls that were right in front of her? It drove her crazy.

Guh, she was getting distracted! “Lena?” she called out. “Hello? Anyone?”

All of a sudden, with an eerie noiselessness, a large oak desk covered in piles of papers and folders appeared in front of her, along with an old owl who sat behind it. He was wearing a brown sweater vest and bowtie, along with a pair of too-small spectacles that rested on his beak. 

He let out a weary sigh and adjusted his glasses. “Name?”

“Uh, hi. I’m Webby,” Webby said. “What’s going on?”

“Last name?”

“Vanderquack. Is this the inside of the Mirror of Absolute Truth?”

“Mmhmm.” The owl sifted through a bunch of papers before finally pulling one out and looking it over. “You’re in reception right now. This is where we make sure that the mirror didn’t make any mistakes.”

“I didn’t know magical artifacts could make mistakes.”

He chuckled humorlessly. “I wish. But, see, look, it just did: you’re not supposed to be here. You answered your question honestly—you do like girls—so clearly something went wrong. Anyway, you’re free to go.”

Webby turned as a door appeared on her left, a neon ‘exit’ sign above the frame. “What, just like that?”

“Yep,” said the owl, popping the p. He shuffled her file back into a larger stack of papers, straightening them out against the surface of the desk and then setting them on the pile. 

“But what about Lena?” Webby asked.

“The shadow? Yeah, she lied, so she’s getting, you know.” The owl pulled a finger across his neck and made a ‘shhk’ sound with the corner of his mouth.

Webby gasped. “Oh no! I have to save her! How can I find her?”

“Yeah, that’s, uh.” The owl adjusted his glasses. “That’s not really a thing you can do. She said she didn’t have a crush on anyone, but she knew she did, so. She lied. That’s just the way this thing goes.” He shrugged.

Webby froze. She hadn’t really had time to think about it, but… Lena did have a crush on someone, didn’t she? That’s why they were in this mess. And she didn’t want to say who it was in front of everyone badly enough to risk whatever the Mirror would do to her. What did that mean?

Obviously, Webby hoped that it meant that Lena’s crush was on her, and she was just embarrassed to admit it. But it could also mean other things, like that it  _ wasn’t _ on her, but Lena knew Webby liked her, and didn’t want to break her heart. Or it could be something like Lena  _ did _ have a crush on her, but she didn’t want to actually be in a  _ relationship _ with her, so she was just waiting for the feelings to subside and  _ that’s _ why she didn’t want to tell her. Or probably a million other things she wasn’t thinking of! God, love sucked!

“Hey, you know, like, everything about everyone, right?” Webby asked.

“Something like that,” said the owl.

“Then can you tell me why Lena lied?”

“No.”

“Darn it.” Webby frowned crossing her arms.

“Sorry,” the owl said, not sounding or looking particularly sorry. “Those are the rules.”

“Can you at least tell me if her crush is on me or someone else?”

He gave her an unimpressed look. “What did I  _ just _ say? There’s nothing else for you here, Miss Vanderquack. The door is right there—please use it.” 

“Not without Lena!”

“You and Lena are not able to see each other,” the owl said. “I don’t appreciate having to repeat myself. If you insist on refusing to leave without her, then by all means continue to sit here and starve to death. But—and I’m only saying this one more time—you are free to exit the Mirror of Absolute Truth at any time through the door provided.”

“Fine,” said Webby. “If you won’t help me, I’ll just  _ make _ you help me!”

She let out a warcry and leapt over the desk, her hands going for the owl’s throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Webby would fight god if she had to.


	8. Lena Versus the Mirror of Absolute Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The untruth hurts.

Lena found herself standing in a featureless white void. She immediately began hyperventilating, throwing a hand over her lungs. 

It was oppressive. Everything felt wrong, like the infinite white walls were closing in on her. She felt like she was drowning in the brightness. She felt like she was falling downwards and upwards at the same time—she was going to throw up.

“Name?” asked an owl from behind an oak desk.

“What?” Lena choked out. When had he gotten there? “What’s happening to me?”

“Perhaps if you give me your name, I could tell you,” said the owl.

“Lena,” she managed.

“Last name?”

She shook her head.

He looked through a few papers. “The shadow construct?”

She nodded. God, she felt sick.

“Well, that would explain your discomfort,” said the owl, putting those papers down and moving on to a different folder. “The Mirror of Absolute Truth’s pocket dimension isn’t adjacent to the Shadow Realm like the material realm.”

He was right; Lena couldn’t feel the Shadow Realm at all. Even more alarmingly, she realized that she could barely access her shadow magic; it was there, but far too weak to use as fuel for a spell.

“Conventionally, that lack of connection should have caused you to lose form and dispel yourself,” the owl went on. “Since you’re a being of shadow magic, and shadow magic doesn’t work here, you also shouldn’t work here. Quite the paradox that you’re even standing there, really, but it’s not my job to solve that mystery.” He continued sifting through papers. “Where in the blazes is your file?”

Lena knew why she was still here; she wasn’t made entirely of shadow magic anymore. Her body may be shadow, but her new core—the amulet—was physical, and then she also had her and Webby’s friendship magic through her bracelet. Those two sources must be providing enough energy to keep her molecules together even while separated from the Shadow Realm. If this guy was pulling the strings behind the Mirror of Absolute Truth, then it was strange that he didn’t seem to know that.

Lena leaned forward. “My file? What file?”

“I’m judging you to see if the Mirror of Absolute Truth absorbed you because you lied, or on accident. Your file should say so.”

“Oh,” Lena said. Maybe it was good that this guy didn’t know she still had access to magic. Maybe she could catch him by surprise.

He adjusted his spectacles, pulling a piece of paper out from the middle of a stack. “Ah, yes, here it is. Apologies; I normally don’t need to deal with two people entering the mirror at once. Sorry—three, now.” He sighed. “I’m spread a bit thin at the moment. All these separate bodies… Anyway, you lied about not having a crush on anyone, so it’s time for the mirror to kill you now.”

Lena groaned. “Okay, fine, I have a crush on Webby! Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Yeah, like, five minutes ago,” said the owl with a roll of his eyes. “Too little too late. Now if you’ll excuse me—”

“Not so fast,” Lena interjected, charging a force blast in her right hand. “I already died once before; I’m not about to do it again.”

Before she could fire, though, the owl got knocked out of his chair by something she couldn’t see, and started clawing at his neck. 

“Huh,” Lena said, even as her core began glowing progressively brighter as she charged her magic. “That makes this easier.”

* * *

Bentina Beakley tapped her foot impatiently in the featureless white void. After a few seconds, a desk and an owl appeared in front of her.

“Na—oh,” muttered the owl. “It’s you.”

“Hello, Derek.”

“Agent 22,” Derek returned darkly. “So, what? Was stealing me from my home and stuffing me in a closet not enough? Now you have to invade my pocket dimension and torment me as well?”

“Mr. McDuck was the one who did all those things,” Bentina said. “I merely ensured he didn’t die in the process. And if that involved breaking a few owl wings, then that was what had to happen. And now I find myself in a similar situation with my granddaughter and her friend, who I am responsible for, and who seem to be ensnared in your nonsense just as Scrooge once was.”

Derek sighed. “You know the rules, 22. The shadow child lied. She must face the consequences. That’s how the magic works.”

“I disagree,” Bentina said, rolling up her sleeves. But before she could even throw a punch, Derek fell out of his chair, his hands shooting up to his throat.

“Gah!” He kicked out at an unseen enemy on his chest. “She’s so small, how is she so stro—ung!” He held his gut as if it had just been punched in, and before he could recover, he was lifted high up into the air by some unseen force, hit in the chest with a pressurized burst of magic, and slammed through his desk, sending paper scattering everywhere. 

Bentina decided to take a step back.

“Oof!” he exclaimed, getting back to his knees. “How does she still have magic? That’s not—”

He was cut off as something cracked against the side of his face, immediately followed up by a hit to the back of his head. Then, he let out a small yelp as a sizzling scorch mark appeared on his back, even as another hit sent him rolling across the floor. The assault paused for a moment, and Derek lay groaning on the pure white ground.

“You quite alright, there, Derek?” Bentina asked.

“That,” he growled, “is ENOUGH!”

Suddenly, the desk was repaired, and he was sitting behind it once again, completely unharmed. Additionally, Webby and Lena were now there with her, and they quickly noticed each other.

“Webby!”

“Lena!”

They ran up and hugged each other.

“Children,” Bentina said.

They turned, and immediately broke off.

“Uh. Granny?” Webby raised an eyebrow. “Why are you here?”

“I’m fixing this mess,” she said confidently. She strode up to Derek’s desk and slammed a hand down. “Derek. I demand that you release us.”

“You are in _no_ position to make demands, lady,” Derek grumbled. “These kids tried to _kill_ me.”

“I was just gonna knock you unconscious!” Lena protested. “Besides, you were gonna kill me first!”

“No, the _mirror_ was going to kill you,” Derek said. “I just work here!”

“You’re still complicit!” Webby accused, pointing a finger at him.

“Derek, give us a door out of here at once,” Bentina demanded.

“Shut up! Shut UP!” Derek yelled, standing up and leaning forward on his desk, his spectacles crooked and nearly falling off his beak. “I have had it up to _here_ with you people! Do you know how much it hurts to get beaten up when you have three bodies feeling the pain all at once? It’s a lot! As far as I’m concerned, you’re _all_ guilty, so here’s what’s gonna happen: I’m going to _leave_ and take a _nap._ And meanwhile, the mirror is gonna _kill you all._ Got it? Great! Bye!” Derek and his desk blinked out of existence, and the whole void started to rumble. 

Well. This was not going exactly as Bentina had planned it.

Webby turned to her. “Granny? What do we do?” 

“I’m not entirely sure,” she admitted. “As far as I know, Derek is the only being able to create exits out of this pocket dimension. Last time I was here, I managed to intimidate him into helping, but that didn’t work quite as well this time.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Lena mumbled.

The rumbling grew louder and louder, and in front of them, a large, pulsing grey crystal in the shape of an 8-sided prism seemed to unfold itself out from a nonexistent box. It emitted a dull yellow light, and began spinning faster and faster. Bentina could hear a low hum coming from it, growing increasingly louder.

“I think it’s powering up,” Bentina said. “I’m guessing… giant laser.”

Webby and Lena exchanged a look, and grabbed hands. Blue energy rushed out from their bracelets until they were both glowing with magic. 

“Get behind us,” Lena instructed. 

Bentina did, and just in time; as predicted, the prism shot out a giant laser, which slammed into the magical barrier that was projecting out from Webby and Lena’s bracelets. It looked like it was taking up all of their concentration, but the forcefield was holding strong. Without hesitation, Bentina pulled a Mk. 5 compressed laser pistol out from an apron pocket, amped the energy level up to max, switched off the burst stabilizers, and began shooting over the top of the shield. 

The blasts slammed into the surface of the crystal and exploded against it, crackling with deadly amounts of loose energy. After the sixth shot or so, the laser beating against the kids’ shield lost a bit of intensity, and after the tenth, it was only about half as wide as when it had started. She stowed the pistol back in her apron and took out a micro bomb, pulling her arm back and flinging the small explosive as hard as she could. It flew through the air, and the rapidly rotating prism slammed into it like a ceiling fan into a pillow—the impact was more than enough to set it off, and in an instant, the upper seventy percent of the crystal was missing, blown to smithereens.

The remains of the device fell to the floor of the void with a clank, and sparkling gray magical energy spilled out of up, curling up into the air in wispy tendrils. Lena and Webby let go of their shield, but not their hands, even as the friendship magic drained back into their bracelets.

“Not bad, tea time,” Lena muttered.

“That’s step one down,” Bentina said, ignoring the nickname. “Now we just need to find a way out of here before Derek figures out we’re still alive. Hopefully he’s a deep sleeper.”

“I think he’ll be out for a while,” Webby said. “We beat him up pretty bad. And before you say anything, Granny, yes, I _did_ try asking politely first.”

Bentina nodded approvingly. “Sometimes, people just need a good punch to the gut.”

“I used my knee for that one, actually!” Webby chirped.

“Of course, dear.” Bentina looked around them, but aside from the remains of the laser crystal, the void was as barren as ever. “Now, how do we get out of here?”

“I have something that might work,” Lena said. Her chest was glowing faintly through her sweater; Bentina didn’t know the exact details of Lena’s physiology (in fact, from a few stray comments Della had made after their expedition yesterday, she now had no idea what to think), but she did understand that Lena was essentially a being of pure magic. And they could really use some magic right about now.

“What’s your idea?” she asked.

“Well, so—this pocket dimension isn’t connected to the Shadow Realm,” Lena explained, gesturing down their feet, where, sure enough, their shadows were conspicuously absent. “But I am. Since I’m a shadow. And that creates this… weird, constant, invasive feeling of wrongness, since my shadow magic lost its anchor and everything. But I’m thinking that maybe if I try to reach out to the Shadow Realm, I’ll be able to tug on the Veil a little—if I can pull it through to this dimension, we might be able to use it as a backdoor to the real world.”

Webby gasped, eyes sparkling. “We’d get to through the Shadow Realm?”

“That’s the plan,” Lena said. “I mena, you’ve been there before, remember? It’s not exactly the beach.”

“Yeah, ‘cause the beach is _boring!_ ” Webby exclaimed. “Also, it's a little hard to take in the sights when you’re being kidnapped by spirits of jealousy.”

“Kidnapped by what now?” Bentina asked.

Lena gave her a devious smirk. “Yeah, it happened when you were roleplaying Darkwing Duck with Launchpad. Don’t remember? Because trust me, we do.”

Bentina narrowed her eyes. They had _agreed_ to never talk about that. “So, Lena,” she said slowly, “why don’t we get to trying this plan of yours, hmm?”

“Well, sure, if you wanna change the subject,” Lena said smoothly. “Webby, can I hold your hand? I’m gonna need—”

“Yes,” Webby said, interlocking her fingers with Lena’s.

“O-oh.” Lena blushed a little, glancing away. 

Bentina’s eyes went wide—how had she not noticed this before? That explained a lot, actually. Wait, but Webby wouldn’t be able to hide a relationship like that from her, would she? No, she’d be bouncing all over the house if she’d asked Lena out and she’d said yes, so they must not be official yet. And that raised several more questions, perhaps the most relevant one being if this had anything to do with why the kids had been messing around with the Mirror of Absolute Truth, or, more specifically, the lie that had gotten them eaten.

But perhaps it was not her place to interfere. Instead, she just coughed lightly.

“Right, sorry.” Lena shook her head, refocusing, and then started mumbling under her breath. “Let’s see, if my main fuel’s gonna be my friendship magic, then the poem has to be all fluffy instead of emo, but since I’m trying to access the Shadow Realm it still needs to be a little dark, so… Okay. Here goes.” She took a deep breath.

_“With the hand of my best friend_

_The Veil of Shadows we will bend_

_With our love that transcends dimensions_

_We’ll find solace in dark connections.”_

The magical aura around Lena and Webby grew bigger and brighter and fiercer and darker, but Bentina didn’t notice anything happening. She was just forming the words to ask when Webby beat her to it.

“Is it working?” Webby asked, looking up nervously at Lena, whose face was contorted in concentration.

“I think so,” she muttered. “It’s not enough, though. Hold on, maybe if I…”

She threw her head back, and Bentina instinctually dropped into a guarded position as beams of faint dark grey light shot out of Lena’s eyes and mouth in three columns, almost like spotlights. The lights flickered, unstable, like lightbulbs about to die—but, slowly yet surely, they grew more and more consistent, until there was a giant cone of nearly opaque light shining upwards from Lena’s face.

“Is this… supposed to happen?” Bentina asked.

“Yeah, this is pretty shadowy, even for you, Lena,” Webby said. “Maybe we should—ah!”

Suddenly, their friendship bracelets sparked, and Webby’s face started emitting light in a similar manner to Lena’s.

_“It’s fine,”_ Lena said with a hint of strain, her voice multilayered and echoey. _“I’m just using my sympathetic connection with Webby to jumpstart a similar connection between the Shadow Realm and the Mirror.”_

_“This is so cool!”_ Webby said, shining her face around like a kid playing with a laser pointer. 

There was an ear-splitting crack, and Bentina looked down to see a pitch black crack in the whiteness of the pocket dimension, right under Webby and Lena’s feet. She watched in fascination as, with a low groan, it grew wider, smaller cracks splintering off of it.

“And you’re sure you know what you’re doing, Lena?” Bentina asked.

_“Shut up, I’ve almost got it,”_ Lena said. _“Just have to—there!”_

She reached out into thin air and grabbed onto something that Bentina couldn’t see, and yanked it downwards. Immediately, the cracks started racing outwards through the void; Bentina hastily lifted her foot as one sped under her, splitting through the previously immaculate white floor. 

And then suddenly Derek was there, looking frantic and nervously adjusting his bowtie. “Oh, no no no no, what are you doing?! Why aren’t you guys dead? Ah, this is bad, this is bad…” He started walking around in small circles waving his hands all around, even as the cracks began climbing upwards in the distance, curving around back overhead, forming a large dome. “The pocket dimension can’t handle this much thaumic displacement, you’re—you’re gonna bring the whole place down! Oh, I am _so_ getting fired for this, I—”

The dark fissures, by that point, had reached all the way up above them, and the whole void shattered into a thousand pieces, neatly cutting off Derek’s complaining. Bentina immediately found herself in pitch blackness, formless, her senses all out of whack. Something purple and pulsing grabbed her by the wrist—was that her wrist?—and pulled her along through the darkness. 

_What’s going on?_ she tried to ask, but her voice wasn’t working.

_Shadow Realm stuff,_ came a response anyway. _Just stay close to me._

_Lena? Is that you?_

_Yes,_ said the voice. _I’m the weird glowing purple orb._

_Hey Granny!_ came another voice. Webby, she assumed. _Isn’t this cool?_

_It’s… certainly something, dear,_ Bentina answered.

She had the unmistakable feeling of being watched as they swam through the shadows; she had learned to trust her gut, and her gut was telling her that there was something lurking in the darkness around them. Several somethings.

_We aren’t alone, are we?_ she asked.

Lena took a moment to respond. _No. Just stay close to me, and keep moving._

After what was either seconds or hours, she saw a monochromatic outline of McDuck manner in the distance. Looking around, she realized she could actually see various other notable landmarks of Duckburg, all laid out and floating in the black void. The proportions and geography were all out of scale, but it served as a crude representation of the city, she supposed. They crossed through the door into the mansion, and all of a sudden, Bentina could see Lena and Webby standing in front of her, completely normal.

“Huh?” she asked eloquently, looking down at her body that was suddenly there again.

“There are certain points in your world where the connection to the Shadow Realm is a lot stronger than normal,” Lena explained as they walked towards the stairs. “Mt. Vesuvius, Ithaquak, The House of Styx… various places that have a high magical concentration. Duckburg was pretty high on the list anyway because of Scrooge, but after Magica’s little stint during the eclipse, it’s become one of the most well-defined locations in the Shadow Realm. And, trust me, it’s a lot safer in here than out there.” 

“This is where me and Violet went during our sleepover!” Webby said.

“Lovely,” Bentina commented. “How do we… flip back over?”

“I can pull you over,” Lena said. “It’s easy now that I have Magica’s amulet inside me.”

Bentina nodded. “Let’s not waste time, then.”

“I was gonna do it in Webby’s room,” Lena said. “Really give the boys a shock.”

Webby giggled.

“Lena,” Bentina said sternly.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Give me your hands.”

* * *

“They’ve been in there a while,” Huey said. “Do you think they’re okay?”

“Relax,” Louie said, flipping the page in the comic book he was reading. “Beakley’s with them, and she could bench a tractor.”

“Yeah, but this is an ancient magical artifact,” Dewey said. “You can’t bench magic!”

“Then Lena will just deal with it with her crazy shadow powers,” Louie said. “They’ll be fine, trust me.”

Then the mirror shattered.

“Holy crap!” Dewey shouted, scrambling backwards as shards of glass exploded onto the carpet of their bedroom. The empty frame toppled over backwards, thumping to the ground. 

“Oh that does _not_ look good,” Louie said, his comic book abandoned in his lap.

“Oh, no, no, no!” Huey got down on his knees and started gathering up the pieces of glass. “Maybe if we—if we glue it back together, it’ll be okay?”

Louie sucked in a breath. “Yeah, I don’t know about that, dude.” 

Huey let out a sigh, dropping the mirror shards to the ground. “The Junior Woodchuck Guidebook didn’t say anything about the mirror shattering! What should we do?”

“Get Scrooge?” Dewey suggested.

“Ugh! What is with you guys and telling adults when we break things?” Louie protested. “That’s, like, the opposite of what you’re supposed to do when you break things!”

“Louie, Webby and Lena and Beakley could be _dead!”_ Huey shouted.

“Mmmmm…” Louie looked down at the broken mirror. “Gah, okay, okay! Let’s go get Scrooge.” He got up and went to open the door, only for it to swing into his face. “Ow! What the—Webby?!”

“You’re okay!” Huey shouted.

“I got to go to the SHADOW REALM!” Webby exclaimed, throwing up her hands and smiling wide.

“We also almost died,” Lena said from behind her.

“Indeed,” said Mrs. Beakley. “Standing rule: no more using magic artifacts as party games.”

Dewey’s shoulders slumped. “Aww.”

“How’d you get out?” Huey asked, flipping to the page on the Mirror of Absolute Truth and clicking a pen. This all had to get documented _immediately._

“The magic of darkness and friendship,” Lena said.

“But mostly friendship!” Webby added.

Lena nodded. “True, actually. I’d say it was like seventy percent friendship and thirty percent darkness.”

Dewey leaned forward. “The magic of _just_ friendship? Or the magic of lo—”

“Friendship,” Lena said darkly, giving them all a glare. “I’m too exhausted to deal with you guys any more. I’m going to bed.”

Huey reached out. “But the sleepover—”

“Maybe some other time.” Lena climbed the ladder and disappeared into the loft.

“Is she okay?” Dewey asked after a moment.

“Did she _seem_ okay?” Louie returned.

“She’s fine, she’s fine,” Webby assured. “She’s just tired. She had to use, like, a ton of magic to get us out of there.”

“I think she has the right idea, anyhow,” said Mrs. Beakley. “You children need to get some sleep. There will be plenty of time to mess around with magical artifacts you shouldn’t mess around with in the morning.”

She gave them a pointed look. Huey closed his book and slid it back under his hat. “Right. Point taken.”

Mrs. Beakley slipped out of the room, not taking her eyes off of them until the door was shut.

“So, surprise surprise, Huey’s plan was a bust,” Louie said, smirking.

“No it wasn’t!” Huey said. “Lena basically admitted she has a crush on Webby!”

“No, she has a crush on _someone,”_ Webby said. “We don’t know if it’s me! And if she did have a crush on me, why is she hiding it?”

“Why are _you?”_ Huey asked.

Webby blushed and wrapped her arms around herself, tapping the tip of her foot against the floor.

“You’re seriously telling me nothing happened in there?” Dewey asked after it was clear she wasn’t going to defend herself. “Even after Lena suuuuper obviously dodged that question?”

“I mean, we beat up an owl who I think was some sort of demigod, and we blew up this giant crystal, and we traveled through the Shadow Realm, but… it was kind of all too crazy to talk about why we were there in the first place.” She sighed. “And… I don’t want to bring it up unless she does.”

“Oh my god,” Louie said, throwing up his hands. “You’re impossible. This is _actually_ impossible.”

_“Sorry_ for respecting people’s boundaries,” Webby grumbled.

“Just ask her out!” Dewey exclaimed. “Just tell her! I _swear_ on my _life_ that she’ll say yes!”

_“You don’t know that though!”_ Webby hissed.

“Guys, guys, calm down!” Huey said. If they got any louder, Lena might hear, and for all he knew that would lead to even more weird denial on both their parts. “If Webby isn’t comfortable asking Lena, then we just need to get Lena to ask Webby.”

“How?” Dewey said.

Huey let out a long sigh, and turned to Louie, who was looking at him with a knowing smirk. (He hated him sometimes.) “It’s time for plan L.”

“What did I tell you?” Louie said. “All roads lead to Louie.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, maybe some romantic competition is what Lena needs to confront her feelings,” Huey said. “I mean, she got absorbed by a mirror in order to dance around this. We need to take drastic measures.”

Webby shifted, wringing her fingers together. “I don’t know, guys. Are we sure about this? Who did you even have in mind? Should we make a list of candidates?”

“Don’t worry, Webs, I’ll take care of it,” Louie assured. “In the morning, by the way. Right now, I’m going to bed.”

They all mumbled their affirmations, and settled into their sleeping bags for the night. The boys pretended not to notice when Webby got up a few minutes later and scurried up the ladder to the loft.

* * *

It was around eight in the morning when Della Duck got a knock on her bedroom door. She reflexively saved the document she was working on (even though it autosaved now—that was new), flipped the lid of her laptop shut, got up, turned on the lights, and opened the door. Mrs. Beakley was standing on the other side, looking as proper as ever.

“Oh, hey there,” Della said. “Are the kids causing trouble again? If you need me to help wrangle them, I can—”

“No, it’s not that,” Beakley said. Then she looked to side. “Well. They did get up to sme mischeif last night, but nothing I couldn’t deal with. I actually wanted to talk with you about the trip to Talongass; and no offense to Mr. McDuck, but I don’t always trust his judgement on these matters.”

“What matters?” Della said. “And why trust me? I’m not exactly known around here for good decision making.”

“Perhaps that’s why I figure you might have some perspective that Scrooge lacks. That _I_ lack.” Beakley sighed. “This is about Lena.”

Oh.

“Right,” Della said, nodding. “Shut the door.”

* * *

Violet Sabrewing stared at the duck standing on her porch. Or, rather, the Duck; Louie Duck, to be precise. He was slouching, hands in his hoodie pockets, looking at her like he hadn’t just asked her something utterly preposterous.

“I’m sorry,” Violet said slowly. “You want me to _what?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be the last one for a bit; got some life stuff coming up, and I'll need some time to get my feet under me again. But I'm definitely planning to see this fic through, so don't go anywhere!


	9. Green-Eyed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Purple Bird: Enter

“I’m sorry,” Violet said slowly, staring at Louie. “You want me to  _ what?” _

“Did you legit not hear me, or are you being dramatic?” he asked.

“You were sufficiently audible, despite your frequent mumbling habit. Nevertheless, I would still like to hear you repeat your request, if only to give me more time to process it.”

“Sure. Nerd.” He cleared his throat. “I want you to pretend to flirt with Webby so that Lena gets jealous and asks her out.”

Violet was mildly disappointed that Louie had, in fact, repeated the same thing. A small part of her had been hoping he would for some reason change it, and spare her the remainder of this conversation. Such an outcome had been unlikely, however, and she had known this; thus why she was only  _ mildly _ disappointed.

“And when you needed someone to ‘flirt’ with Webbigail, you thought of me.”

“Yeah,” said Louie.

“I see.” Violet paused, studying him. “Do you understand why I find that somewhat curious?”

Louie put a finger up to his chin. “Hmmm. Could it be because you’re a crazy logical robot girl who has one facial expression and talks like a wikipedia article?”

“A have a wide variety of facial expressions, thank you,” Violet defended. “I simply employ them with discretion. But in essence, yes, that is the source of my confusion on the matter.”

Louie rolled his eyes. “Look, Vi, it has to be you. You hadn’t known Webby for even a day and Lena was so jealous that she got her body back just to fight you.”

“Okay, so, that is almost entirely inaccurate,” Violet said, raising a finger to point at him. “How did you manage to draw such an inane conclusion?”

“So I don’t know the details!” Louie exclaimed, throwing up a hand. “Sue me! The point is she was jealous of you once, so she can be jealous of you again. You don’t need to frickin’ serenade Webby—just, like, touch her hair a few times. If Lena sees that, trust me, she’ll practically explode.

“I did read a fascinating book on the various ways different people express affection,” Violet said. “I may need to pursue further study, but I suppose it is possible I could pull off the role.”

Louie broke into an expression that Violet imagined one wore when the roulette ball was teetering on the edge of your number. “So you’ll do it?”

“I didn’t say that.”

And the ball slipped backwards, sending Louie’s face plummeting along with it. “So you  _ won’t _ do it?”

“I didn’t say that, either.”

“Violet, you’re playing with my heart here.” He sighed, beginning to tap his foot nervously. “Look, Webby and Lena are your friends, right? Don’t you want them to finally stop beating around the bush and kiss already?”

“That would make hanging out with them easier,” Violet admitted. “And I do want them to be happy. So, yes.”

“Well, this plan’s gonna do that!” Louie said. “C’mon, Vi! For Webby and Lena!”

“Yes, I have total confidence in a plan that involves lying to one of my friends about my intentions in courting my other friend,” Violet said.

Louie narrowed his eyes. “Was that sarcasm?”

“No, I think your plan is just stunning,” Violet said flatly.

“See, that  _ sounds _ like it’s sarcasm, but I’m not sure if you’re capable of being sarcastic.”

“I’ll be more clear then,” Violet said. “Your plan sucks.”

Louie frowned. “Rude.”

“It’s immoral and has an equal chance of working out as it does ruining the friendships we all share.” “Fine. I’ll find someone else.” Louie slumped grouchily and began turning around when Violet spoke up, stopping him in his tracks.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it.”

Louie regarded her suspiciously. “Okay. But you also didn’t say you  _ would _ do it, right?”

“That is correct,” Violet said. “I have not said either of those things.”

“I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

“I’m very frustrated by you right now,” he amended

“That’s understandable.”

“Look, just tell me what your answer is so I can move on,” Louie said.

Violet thought for a moment, and then, just as she could tell Louie was growing impatient enough that he might leave anyway, said, “I’ll help you.”

Louie raised an eyebrow. “Even though my plan sucks?”

“Yes, even though your plan sucks,” Violet said. “The fact of the matter is that if they don’t get together soon, I will probably go insane. Your plan is risky and ethically dubious, but it isn’t impossible. As I don’t believe Lena will sort out her feelings without some outside interference, and as I can think of no better alternative, the small chance your plan has of working is the best chance available to me. So I will help you, though I reserve the right to back out at any time if I feel the process is seriously endangering any of our relationships.”

“Deal,” Louie said, relaxing into a confident smirk. “Nice to have you on board, Vi.”

“Violet will suffice.”

“Sure thing, Vi.”

Violet looked him dead in the eye. “Llewellyn.”

Louie narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. “Fine. You win this one.”

Violet smiled at him. “Glad to hear it. Now let me just tell my Dads, and I’ll head on over.”

* * *

Lena was watching TV with Webby, Dewey, and Huey when Louie and Violet walked in. 

“Oh snap, Ottoman Empire?” Louie said, pulling a can of Pep out from his hoodie pocket and cracking it open. “Yo, scoot over.”

Webby scooched further against the couch’s arm, and Lena pushed up against her, and Louie plopped down between his brothers. “Violet! Hey!” Webby greeted.

“Yeah, long time no see, Vi,” Lena said, trying extra-hard to sound laid back, and to not sound like she was internally freaking out about pushing up so close to Webby.

“Why does  _ she _ get to call her Vi?” Louie grumbled from off to the side.

“You didn’t tell me you were coming over,” Webby said.

“I wanted to see you,” said Violet. She walked over and sat on the arm of the couch next to Webby.

“Aww! That’s so sweet of—what are you doing?”

“Hmm?” questioned Violet, who was currently stroking Webby’s hair. Her face retained its usual affect, which only made it look even stranger to Lena.

Webby spluttered. “I mean—you’re—” Violet’s hand moved down from Webby’s hair to rest against her cheek. Webby pulled back ever so slightly. “Uhhhhhh.”

Behind her, the boys turned to stare at Louie, but Lena was too busy eyeing Violet to notice.

“Violet? You good?” Lena asked, giving her a strange look.

“Oh, hello, Lena,” Violet said, her eyes moving off of Webby’s to lock with hers. “Didn’t see you. Yes, I’m fine.” 

Without breaking eye contact with Lena, Violet reached out one arm and wrapped it around Webby’s shoulders. Lena narrowed her eyes and wrapped her  _ own _ arm around Webby, right under Violet’s. They continued to stare each other down as Webby looked frantically between the two of them.

“I…” Webby began. “I need to go. To the bathroom! Goodbye.”

She slipped off the couch and scurried out of the room, shooting a single troubled glance over her shoulder as she left. Lena immediately turned to the boys. “Hey, could you guys go check on her? I want a minute alone with Violet.”

Louie looked down at his Pep, looked up at the TV, and let out a sigh. “Sure. Yeah. Come on.”

As the three of them got up and went after Webby, Lena turned to Violet and asked, “What the hell was that?!”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Lena threw out a hand. “You were  _ clearly  _ making Webby uncomfortable.”

“That was not my intention.”

“Then what  _ was _ your intention? You’re acting super strange, Vi.”

She was silent for a moment. “The truth is…” she sighed. “I have a crush on Webby.”

Lena’s hand flopped to her side as her beak fell open. “You—you—you  _ what?!” _

“I have a crush on Webbigail,” she repeated. “Is that a problem?”

“Ye—or—no—well—” Lena stopped, at a loss, and slumped into the couch. The TV was currently on commercial, and she watched it dully, unseeing.  _ Violet _ had a crush on Webby? What? Since when? Why  _ now? _ Lena wanted to scream.

She turned when she heard a small gasp; Violet had a hand over the tip of her beak, her eyes slightly wide. And for Violet, that was practically a screech of shock. “Lena do you—” Violet averted her eyes and coughed. “Could it be that you  _ also _ have a crush on Webbigail?”

Lena groaned, and somehow managed to slump even further into the couch. She was going to become one with the couch. It would swallow her whole, and then spit back up a mass of feathers and shadow essence and loose change, and it would be a much better experience for her than the rest of this conversation would be.

“Yes,” Lena said as she sank into the cushions.

“Hmm. This is rather awkward,” Violet said. “I hope the strength of our friendship will allow us to stay on good terms no matter the outcome of this kerfuffle.”

“I didn’t take you for the type to say kerfuffle unironically,” Lena grumbled, still not willing to look at Violet.

“It’s a fun word,” she responded. “And I’ll take your teasing as a sign of agreement.”

Lena was silent for a moment. “You really didn’t know that I had a crush on Webby?” Lena asked. “Because it feels like literally everyone else did besides us.”

“It must have slipped my notice somehow,” Violet said dryly. Then she let out a sigh. “Look. Lena, you’re my friend; and moreover, you’ve been Webby’s friend for much longer than I have. I’m willing to defer to you somewhat in this matter.”

“…What do you mean?” Lena asked, rising out of her cushion-hole and eyeing Violet suspiciously.

“Here’s my proposition,” Violet said, slipping off of the couch. She stood up straight, stretching her arms. “I’ll give you until 4:30 PM tomorrow to tell Webby how you feel, and in that time, I shall make no advances on her. After the deadline, I shall proceed without regard to you. Does that sound fair?”

Lena blanched. “T-tomorrow?”

“Yes. 4:30,” she repeated. “That should be plenty of time for you to ask her. Right?”

“Um,” said Lena.

“It’s settled, then.” Violet walked off towards the door. “I know this may sound strange considering my own position in the matter, but I do mean it when I say: I hope it goes well.”

She left Lena on the couch, frozen solid.

_ “Uh oh, looks like we’re running out of time!” _ said one of the Ottoman brothers from the TV. He was standing in front of two different ottomans, while a woman looked frantically between them.  _ “You better hurry up and make your choice, or you’ll go home without ANY ottoman at ALL!” _

Lena grabbed the remote and switched off the TV. 

“Fuck,” she mumbled under her breath, because that was all she really had to say on the matter.

* * *

As soon as the living room was out of sight and the cheerful studio laughter of TV shows about constructing footrests faded into the background, Webby stopped walking, and leaned back against the wall. A few minutes later, Louie showed up, flanked by his brothers.

“Violet?” Webby asked.  _ “Violet? _ You asked  _ Violet _ to fake-flirt with me?!”

“Obviously,” Louie said. “Who else?”

“Anyone! Anyone else! This is so weird!”

“Not to disagree, but I think a complete stranger would be even weirder,” Huey said.

“Also, Lena is more likely to banish a complete stranger to the Shadow Realm than Violet,” Dewey added.

Louie rolled his eyes. “No one’s gonna get banished to the Shadow Realm. My plan is flawless.” 

“But what if Violet and Lena stop being friends?” Webby asked. “That would be terrible!”

“I think Violet would come clean before it could get that far,” Huey said. “And then we just say it was all Louie’s idea, and he’s the one who gets banished to the Shadow Realm.”

Webby thought for a moment. “Okay. I can live with that.”

“Wow,” Louie mumbled. “Thanks.”

A few soft taps against the carpet drew their attention to Violet, who was walking down the hallway towards them.    


“So?” Dewey asked. “How’d it go?”

“Well, she told me she has a crush on Webby,” Violet said.

“She—S-she does?” Webby asked.

“We’ve been trying to tell you that for  _ days,” _ Huey said.

Dewey raised his hands in front of his chin excitedly. “So does this mean you’re finally going to ask her out, and we can be done with this whole thing?”

“No, it means Louie’s plan is working!” Webby said. “I think Lena might actually ask  _ me _ this time! This is, like, the best case scenario!”

“See? Flawless plan,” Louie said.

“I gave her until tomorrow afternoon to confess,” Violet said. “Sof if she doesn’t do so in that amount of time, then you should take the initiative instead. Especially since you know she feels the same way now.”

“…Fine,” Webby relented. “But until then, operation ‘get Lena to ask me out so I don’t have to’ stays on pace.” She took a breath, and looked around at all her friends. “Thanks so much, everyone. I couldn’t have done this without you all.”

“No prob,” Louie said.

“Yeah! We’re always here to help,” Dewey assured.

“Mostly because if we didn’t, you’d just keep running circles around each other forever,” Violet deadpanned.

“But the  _ important _ thing,” Huey said, shooting Violet a look, “is that you two are going to be together soon, one way or another.”

Webby felt like she could cry; how long had she been waiting for this? “Group hug!” she shouted, flinging herself onto her the others and knocking them down to the ground. A few of them were protesting, which she obviously ignored, because her hugs could not be denied.

“Careful, Webby. If Lena sees this, it could jeopardize the mission.”

“Shut up, Violet,” Webby chirped.

* * *

Bentina Beakley listened in silence as Della related the family’s adventure through the Talongass Caverns: the bridge collapsing, Webby and Lena’s bracelets acting up, the puzzle room, Lena’s arm getting cut off—

Wait.

“Her  _ what _ got cut off?!” Bentina exclaimed, her hands gripping the sides of Della’s armchair as she leaned forward.

“Her arm,” Della said. “It got cut off by a trap, and then a bunch of demons from the shadow realm tried to use her body as a portal to escape.”

Bentina just stared.

“Don’t worry so much; Webby screwed it back on,” Della assured. “She’s good as new.”

“Della,” Bentina said, “please tell me that that at least disturbs you a  _ little.” _

Della’s eyes flashed down to her leg. “Not really.”

“Oh,” Bentina mumbled. “Right. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Della said. “Once you have to amputate your own leg using a sheet of scrap metal from your crashed spaceship, the whole concept loses a lot of its shock value.”

“I… can’t even imagine, Della,” Bentina said. “Was that the end, then? Once the vault opened, I mean. You mentioned that the treasure was inside.”

“It  _ also _ contained a giant horse minotaur!” Della said excitedly.

“Of course it did; how silly of me,” Bentina commented. “I assume this ‘horse minotaur’ tried to kill you, as per usual?”

“Well, not me,” Della said, laughing nervously. “It, uh, tried to kill Webby, actually.”

Beakley narrowed her eyes. “Did I not tell you and Scrooge  _ explicitly  _ that it was your job to protect the chil—”

“Yes, yes, I know, but everyone got out just fine! No worries!” Della put her hands out in a placating gesture. “Lena saved her. She summoned some sort of shadow monster with a bunch of dark tentacles and pulled the minotaur into the Shadow Realm. It was… very effective.”

“Again with the shadow magic,” Bentina mumbled.

“I’ll admit that one  _ was _ a bit unnerving, but Webby was in danger,” Della said. “Lena did what she had to do.”

“I understand that. She worked similar feats of magic to get us out of the Mirror of Truth, and I’m thankful for it. But, Della… aren’t you worried? Shadow magic is  _ Magica de Spell’s _ territory _. _ She practically invented the field! Aren’t you worried about Lena relying on the same powers that Magica developed?  _ Nothing _ that comes from that woman’s insane machinations can be good.”

“What about Lena?” Della asked, crossing her arms. “Magica made her. Are you saying Lena’s not good, either?”

Bentina sighed. “You  _ know _ that’s not what I’m saying. She’s the exception.”

“I think shadow magic in general is very similar to Lena, actually,” Della said. “When Magica was using shadow magic, she did bad things with it—just like how when Magica was manipulating Lena, she made her do bad things, too. But Lena isn’t Magica; she can use her powers for  _ good.” _

“You weren’t there in the Mirror,” Bentina argued. “Lena’s magic… it was spreading through her bond with Webby.  _ My _ granddaughter was spouting shadows out of her face like she’d been possessed by Magica herself!”

Della was quiet for a moment, scanning Bentina with narrowed eyes. “I think I see what’s going on,” she said after a moment. “This isn’t about shadow magic at all. You still think Lena’s a bad influence on Webby.”

“You—I—you are putting words in my mouth, Ms. Duck,” Bentina said sternly. “That shadow magic of hers is dangerous, and if she keeps using it so readily, she could hurt someone.”

“She is literally  _ made _ of shadow magic!” Della exclaimed. “You think it’ll be safer to bottle it all up and wait for it to explode?”

Bentina stood up in one fluid motion, her massive form towering above where Della was crouched on her desk chair. “It’s better than letting it run wild and  _ corrupt _ all the other children!”

Della backed up suddenly, bumping against her desk and sending her laptop sliding a few inches. 

“My… apologies,” Bentina said embarrassedly, dusting off her apron and sitting back down. “I got a bit carried away there. I didn’t mean that.”

“You’re talking about her like she’s some kind of disease,” Della said after a moment, once Beakley had settled down.

“That was never my intention. I’m bringing this up in Lena’s interest as well; I’m not sure all this dark magic is good for her, either.”

“And you’re sure  _ none _ of this has to do with you being overprotective of Webby?” Della asked flatly.

Bentina looked away. “The girls bought alcohol yesterday,” she said. “I found it in the cupboard last night.”

“Didn’t you say it was pink?” Della asked. “Sounds more like Webby than Lena to me.”

“But I’m sure it was Lena’s idea. She—”

“I thought you were fine with them being friends,” Della interrupted. “What’s this all about?”

Bentina was silent for a good minute before she sighed and looked Della right in the eye. “Della, I doubt they’re going to stay ‘friends’ for much longer.”

“Oh,” Della said. “Oooohhh. No, yeah, they aren’t.”

“And I can think of a dozen ways that could go horribly wrong.”

“And I can think of another dozen ways it could go amazingly well,” Della said. “They’re teens. You’ve gotta let them experiment sometimes. That’s how they learn.”

“Lena is a being made of dangerous, emotionally-based magic, she probably doesn’t age, she has criminal habits, and she is likely struggling with a lot of emotional and psychological baggage,” Beakley said. “I know none of that is her fault, and I dearly wish I could do more to help her, but I don’t think a relationship will be good for either of them at the moment.”

“Seriously?” Della crossed her arms. “Webby’s still learning about how to make deep connections with others and how to respect boundaries, and I know Lena’s helping her a lot with both of those. And Webby’s helping Lena with all that stuff you already mentioned. This is  _ exactly _ what they need right now, and even if it  _ doesn’t _ work out, well… it’s never really too early to start to learn how to get over a breakup.”

Bentina took off her glasses, pinching the space between her eyes. “I just want to keep them safe.”

“Is that what you told yourself when you kept Webby locked up in a mansion all alone for twelve years, too?” Della said.

Bentina rolled her eyes as she reinstated her glasses to their proper position. “Oh, well if that isn’t rich coming from the mother who abandoned her unborn children to—”

Della slammed a fist on her desk. “I didn’t  _ abandon _ them, I—you—” She took a deep breath. “Maybe… we should cut this short. Before we say anything else that we’re going to regret.”

“…Yes,” Bentina said, standing from her chair. “Perhaps that would be for the best. Thank you for your insight.”

“Yeah,” Della said, opening the hood of her laptop. “If you could turn off the lights when you go out, that’d be great.

Bentina did so, and Della’s room was plunged into darkness, save for the cool glow of her computer screen. Bentina shut the door with care, and it barely made a noise before the latch clicked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It hurts my Beakley-loving heart that I have to frame her in a somewhat antagonistic role in this fic... she just needs to learn not to be so overprotective. She'll get there!
> 
> Update schedule is gonna stay kinda low for a while longer. Y'all know how it is. Thanks for reading!!


	10. Lena Versus Bad Timing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything goes perfectly and nothing goes comically wrong.

It had been about two hours since Lena’s talk with Violet, and she was freaking out. She didn’t know what to do here; she was terrified of confessing to Webby, but if she waited any longer, then Violet would start making everything even _more_ complicated and confusing. She should really be grateful that Violet was willing to give her this head start—she hadn’t needed to do that—but honestly, all it seemed to be doing was stressing out Lena even more.

And that’s why she had decided that she needed some help.

She walked into one of the lesser-used rooms of the mansion, where Louie was waiting for her on the couch, a six pack of Pep on the small table next to the arm rest. 

Lena shut the door behind her. “Thanks for meeting me here.”

“So,” Louie said with a devious half-smile, cracking open a can and taking a sip. “The enigmatic Lena requires my assistance.”

Lena gave him the most unimpressed look she could muster. “I just wanted to talk with you. Who says I need your help?”

“Lena, come on,” Louie said, rolling his eyes. “We both know you’re not here to _bond_ with me. What do you want?”

Lena let out a hefty sigh. “You promise not to tease me?”

“No.”

“Dude!”

“What?!” he exclaimed, throwing out a hand. “You know I can’t make that promise!”

“Ugh, you’re the worst, green,” Lena grumbled. “I’ll just go ask one of the other ones.”

“Okay, okay, I won’t tease you,” Louie said. “Much.”

Lena sighed, but slumped down in the chair across from him. “That’s not very reassuring.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers, Lena. And, let’s face it, you’re not gonna have much luck with Huey or Dewey; they’re great at a lot of things, but this is a Louie problem.”

Lena regarded him suspiciously, crossing her arms. “And how do you know what my problem is?”

“Uh, duh, because you've been staring anxiously and longingly at Webby for like an hour,” Louie said. “Doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to suss that one out.”

Lena blushed. “Shut up.”

“So, you’re finally thinking about asking her out, but you don’t know how to do it; is that it?”

Lena nodded. “I don’t want to screw it up. If she turns me down—”

Louie almost spit out a mouthful of Pep as he started cracking up. “Ha! Ha ha! Oh, that’s a good one, Lena!”

“I’m serious, idiot!” Lena snapped.

“Oh, Lena,” Louie said, still giggling. “Webby is _not_ going to turn you down. She’s been crushing on you super hard for, like, forever.” 

“Wh—she—” Lena froze. _What? Seriously?!_ “Why didn’t you freaking say anything?!”

“At first, because it was funny,” Louie said simply. “And also because Webby promised she’d break my arm if I did. Now, it’s just, like, annoying, though, so I’ve decided to say screw it and start just telling you that you like each other in the hopes that one of you will finally take the hint and actually do something about it. I have a bet going with my brothers, too, about which one of us can actually get you guys together, so that’s a factor as well. But if it’s easier for you, we can pretend I’m acting out of the goodness of my heart.”

Lena looked away. “I’m… still scared, though. Even if we both want it, what if it, like, doesn’t work out? Am I even ready for a relationship? I’m still trying to sort myself out. I don’t know, it’s just… there are so many _things.”_

Louie shrugged. “I mean, personally, sounds like a bunch of excuses to me. But if you want to wait a couple days—”

“I can’t, though!” Lena cried. “Violet—she just told me that _she_ has a crush on Webby too, and if I don’t confess by tomorrow, she’s going to do it first.” 

“Woah, really?” Louie said, eyes wide. “That’s serious, Lena. You gotta confess _now!_ No time to lose!”

“I know! That’s why I need your help,” Lena said. “I have no idea how to do this.”

“No problem. Just follow my lead.” Louie finished off his soda and stood up, walking out of the room.

Lena got up and followed him, somewhat apprehensive, as he led them back through the halls to the living room where Webby, Violet, Huey, and Dewey were sitting on the floor, crowded around some board game.

“So what’s the plan?” Lena whispered into Louie’s ear.

He slouched, stuffing his hands into his hoodie. “Don’t worry, I got this.”

“Oh hey guys!” Dewey said—he was the only one facing the door, and as such was the first to spot them. The others quickly turned and gave greetings of their own.

Lena nodded at them. “Sup.” 

“Hi,” Louie said simply. “Hey, uh, Webby?”

“Yeah?” Webby asked.

Louie jerked his thumb towards the door. “Lena wants to talk with you alone. It’s important.” 

Lena swiveled on Louie, clenching her fists. _“T_ _hat’s_ your plan?!” she hissed through her teeth.

“Oh! Um, okay!” Webby said, getting up. “Louie, you can fill in for me if you want—I’m in the lead.”

“Nice,” Louie said. He winked at Lena and waggled his eyebrows before walking over and settling down by the game board.

“Wanna talk out front? It’s a nice day out,” Webby suggested.

“I, uh—sure,” Lena relented. Guess there was no backing out now. She couldn’t tell if Louie was a jerk or a genius. Well, probably both.

They made their way out to the front porch, sitting down on the steps. Webby had been right; it _was_ a nice day out. The sun was just beginning to drop, and the sky was a rich blue, spotted with a few well-placed clouds.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Webby asked.

“Um…” The rough stone scraped against Lena’s fingers as she clenched them around the edge of the step. “It’s, like… So… Ugh.” She hung her head.

Webby cocked her head to one side. “Lena?”

“I’m sorry. I’m so bad at this.”

“It’s okay!” Webby assured. “Take your time.”

Lena, certain her face was on fire, just stared down at her knees for a while before saying anything else. “Webby, you… from the first moment I saw you, I knew you were special. Okay, well, maybe not from the _very_ first moment, but pretty quickly, and—whatever. Look. The point is, like, I _hated_ working for Magica. She was bossy and evil and I hated having to do everything she said. But once I met you, I finally started… having fun. I told Magica—and myself, I guess—that I went to all those sleepovers so I could get close to Scrooge and the dime, but, really, I just wanted to spend time with you. With someone who actually… _cared_ about me. You know?

“I’m not used to having people care about me. You were the first person who ever did. And you didn’t stop, not even after you learned what I really was. You just kept… _caring._ So _much.”_ She let out a small chuckle. “It’s funny; when I was trapped in your shadow, watching you do all that research on how to bring me back, I… I kept telling you to stop. Obviously you couldn’t hear me, but I think I was still, like, legitimately slightly scared of how much you cared. Or maybe I was more scared of the feelings that were rising in me from watching you care so much. I… Ugh, I sound so stupid right now,” she lamented, burying her face in one hand.

“Lena…” She felt Webby’s hand slide into her own, warm and soft. “Lena, you don’t sound stupid at all.”

Lena could feel tears poking at the corners of her eyes, but she forced herself to hold them back. She didn’t want to look like even more of a mess than she already did. “Maybe it’s just Magica’s influence, but I never thought… I never thought a shadow could feel, um… you know, uh…” She waved her hand around vaguely. “Could feel this kind of stuff. I mean I knew I had emotions, obviously, but I’d never really considered that I might…” She trailed off.

“That you might what?” Webby encouraged, giving her hand a small squeeze.

“I never considered that I might fall in love,” Lena said finally, her voice shaky, barely above a whisper. “But you’ve taught me a lot of things, Pink.”

“Lena…” Webby’s voice was quiet, too, but it was dense with emotion. Their eyes met, and they turned to face each other on the steps, reaching out to interlock the second pair of hands as well. “Lena, I… Oh, I knew I should’ve prepared a speech!”

Lena giggled. “Nerd.”

“I just don’t know what to say,” Webby mumbled. Her eyes were boring into Lena’s, unrelenting and intense; the only other person who’d _ever_ looked at Lena with this much raw emotion before was Magica, but that had been the absolute polar opposite of the way Webby was beholding her now.

“That’s okay,” Lena said. “I don’t think you need to say anything.”

Webby smiled. “Yeah.” She started leaning forward, opening her beak just a tad.

Oh. Shit! Oh, shit! Oh shit! Okay! This was happening. Lena leaned forward, too, angling her beak downwards so that— 

_CRASH!_

They both jerked back, faces bright red, and looked around frantically.

“What was that?” Lena asked.

“There!” Webby said, pointing upwards, to where one of the mansion’s windows had been shattered. Lena hastily threw up a shield to block the shards of falling glass, and looked up in a mixture of confusion, frustration, and fascination as none other than Flintheart Glomgold flew through the air, a large burlap sack slung over his shoulder.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” he cackled as he tumbled downwards. “You’ll _nevae_ catch _mae,_ Scrooge! I’m _Flinheart Glomgo—”_

Then he slammed into the decorative fountain, sending up a gigantic splash of water.

“Seriously?!” Lena exclaimed.

The front door clanged open, revealing Violet and the triplets standing right behind it. They were all staring at Glomgold, too, with a wide variety of emotions showing on their faces, from Violet’s unamused apathy to Louie’s intense indignation.

“NOOOO!” Louie shouted, his hands clutching the sides of his head. “My plan was going perfectly! They were about to _kiss!_ And he just ruined _everything!”_

“YOU WERE WATCHING?” Webby screeched, nearly falling down the steps before Lena reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

“Of course,” Huey said. “We needed to see if Louie’s plan worked. And it didn’t! That’s a draw.”

“Are you kidding? Lena literally just confessed!” Dewey said. “Take the L, Huey.”

“You’re just mad that your plan bombed,” Huey countered.

“Wait, plans?” Lena asked, narrowing her eyes at them. “Hold on, how long have you… Oh, Violet, you _jerk.”_

“Apologies for my deception, Lena,” Violet said. “I did what had to be done. Also, for the record, it was Louie’s idea.”

“All in the name of true love, though!” Louie said. “I’m morally in the clear.”

“So you two are dating now, right?” Dewey asked excitedly.

“Dat—da—we—” Webby stuttered out, eyes frozen wide.

“I don’t _know!”_ Lena shouted, splaying out one hand. “We didn’t get to finish our conversation, and now we’re being hounded by all of you during an incredibly emotionally vulnerable moment that was supposed to be _private!_ I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m super scared and you’re _embarrassing_ us and I needed this go perfectly and now it’s not and I’m about to lose my _fucking_ mind!”

Huey gasped. “Lena! That’s—that’s a bad word! You can’t—”

“Not the time,” Louie hissed at his brother. 

“Kids! Are you alright?” 

They turned to see Beakley and Scrooge running up towards them through the foyer.

“We’re fine,” Violet said. “Glomgold is in the fountain, if you’re looking for him.”

As if on cue, Glomgold erupted from the water, spitting a stream of liquid out of his mouth and gasping for air. “HA!” he shouted, pointing a finger at Scrooge. “Ye can booby trap yer yard all ya want, Scrooge, but it’ll never stop Flintheart Glomgold!”

“T’wasn’t a _booby trap,_ ya lumbering oaf!” Scrooge shouted back, waving his cane angrily. “You fell in my fountain! Now get back here so I can show ya what happens to those who dare ta steal from _Scrooge McDuck!”_

“You’ll ‘ave to catch me first! AAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!” Glomgold clambered out of the fountain and ran off towards the gates.

“Gah—the nerve! Come on, kids! After him!”

Scrooge took off, and the boys immediately followed after him. Dewey looked over his shoulder and called out, “Webby, you coming?”

“What?” Webby’s eyes snapped over to him. “Oh! Uh…”

She hesitated, glancing back towards Lena.

“Go,” Lena said. “I… need a minute, anyway.”

“Uh, okay,” Webby said. “We’ll talk later, though right?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

Webby smiled at her, then called after the others to wait up. Lena took in a deep breath, letting the tension flow out of her shoulders.

“Talk about what?” Beakley asked.

Aaaaaaand the tension was back. Fantastic.

“Just something about the game we were playing,” Violet said. “Actually, we should probably clean it up and return it to its proper place on the shelf, right, Lena?”

“Wh—oh, yeah. We should,” Lena said, tossing Violet an appreciative look. 

“Actually, Lena, could I chat with you for a minute?” Beakley asked.

Lena looked to the side. “Um.”

“Great,” said Beakley, turning and walking back into the manor. 

Lena let out a groan and sulked after her. “Well, you tried,” she mumbled as she passed Violet.

“I tried,” Violet agreed.

Beakley led Lena into the kitchen and approached the sink, taking up one of the dirty plates and turning on the hot water. “I hope you don’t mind if I work while we talk. I’m afraid I’m behind schedule today, what with Glomgold breaking in and all.”

“What did he even steal, anyway?” Lena asked.

“A few of the artifacts you and the others recovered from the Talongass region, if I’m to understand,” Beakley said. “They weren’t in the bin yet because Scrooge hadn’t gotten around to checking them for ancient curses.”

“That didn’t stop Glomgold, though.”

“Very little seems to.”

“Good point.” Lena leaned back against the counter. “So, what’s up, Tea Time?”

“I wanted to talk with you about your relationship with my granddaughter.”

Lena started choking. “M-my what?”

Did she know about what had happened on the porch?! There should’ve been no way she could know, but Lena had learned not to underestimate Beakley—there was an unsettling amount of things she seemed to be illogically aware of.

“Forgive me terribly if I’ve misjudged the situation,” Ms. Beakley began, putting the now-clean plate on the rack and taking up another, “but as far as I understand it, you’re developing feelings for her. Do you plan on confessing to her soon?”

Oh thank god. She didn’t know.

Actually, maybe this was worse. How did she answer? ‘Yes’ would be a lie, but ‘no’ wouldn’t exactly be honest, either. Of course, she could always explain that she had already confessed, but Lena didn’t know if this was headed in an ‘I support you’ direction, or a ‘never speak to Webby again’ direction; until she had more information, she should probably play close to the chest. So instead, she just said, “Uhh.”

“I’m just worried you may be rushing things a little,” Beakley continued. “Neither of you have a lot of experience with friendships, you know, so I don’t want you to mistake one for something deeper and pay for it later.” 

“Excuse me?” Lena said stiffly.

Beakley let out a sigh, setting the second plate down and shutting off the water. She turned to face Lena, her face pleading. “Please, don’t misunderstand me. I just want to make sure you two don’t get hurt. I just want you to take your _time_ with this.”

“We’ve known each other for a year,” Lena said. “I am _not_ going to hurt her.”

“Very well,” Beakley said, her face growing determined. “If that is what you think, then I w—”

She stopped abruptly, and they both turned as they heard voices outside the door. They were hard to make out, until suddenly there was a very audible “Wait, don’t go in right now!” just before the door banged open. 

Webby rushed into the room; Violet was standing a ways behind her, looking rather exasperated. Webby stopped in front of Lena, wringing her hands nervously. “Lena! I know you wanted some time to think, but I couldn’t focus out there because I—I just _had_ to make sure that I told you—because I didn’t get a chance to say it earlier, I needed to know that you knew that—”

Lena coughed, and motioned with her head over towards Beakley, who was looking between the two of them with mounting suspicion. 

“O-oh! Granny!” Webby stuttered out. “Fancy, uh, seeing you here!”

“I _tried_ to warn you,” Violet mumbled. 

“Uh, so, if I could just talk with Lena in private—”

“No, I’m curious what you were going to say,” Beakley prompted, her arms folded. “What did you absolutely _have_ to tell Lena?”

“Oh my god,” Lena moaned.

“Well—see—I just wanted to say, that, her, um, _hair,_ looks very nice, and it is pink, and—HYA!” Webby grabbed a cutting board, twirled around, and launched it at Beakley. “Lena, run!”

Beakley caught the makeshift projectile between her palms with a loud _clap,_ but Webby already had Lena’s hand in hers, and they dashed out of the kitchen.

“Webby! What have I told you about using household items as improvised weapons?” Beakley yelled from behind them. 

Violet looked at them, confused, as they burst into the hallway. “What’s going—wha!”

Lena grabbed Violet by the wrist with her free hand, and led the three of them away from Ms. Beakley’s heavy footsteps. “Get ready!” Lena called.

“For what?!” Violet asked, right before Lena dove into the shadow of a nearby display cabinet, pulling her friends after her. Immediately, the mansion became bathed in monochrome, and Lena let go of Violet. 

Webby held on tight, though.

“We’re… in the Shadow Realm again,” Violet observed. “I wasn’t aware you still had the ability to move us between the planes like this.”

“Lena can do a lot of things!” Webby said. “She’s pretty amazing.”

“I—shut up,” Lena grumbled, turning her face to admire the barren wall next to her. “C’mon. Let’s go find somewhere safe where we can switch back.”

Webby took the lead as they set off through the facsimile of the manor. Lena glanced around cautiously, and gasped as she noticed a stark white phantom lurking around one corner, in the shape of Ms. Beakley. Fortunately, its back was to them.

“A tulpa!” Webby whispered.

“It’s taken on your grandmother’s form,” Violet observed. “I didn’t realize her emotions were this negative. What did you say to her?”

Lena shrugged. “Not much, to be honest. It was mostly her talking. I don’t think she’s a big fan of Webby’s and my relationship.”

“And, if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly _is_ your relationship?” Violet asked.

“That’s… what I wanted to talk to Lena about,” Webby mumbled. “Except we keep getting _interrupted.”_

“…We should keep moving,” Lena said. “In here.”

She led them into one of the rooms, which was filled with various random bullshit that rich people owned for whatever reason. Was that a cavalry lance on the wall? Why did Scrooge need a—ugh, nevermind. Focus.

“Alright, let me find a good exit point, and we can—”

She felt Webby tug on her sweater. “Uh, Lena?” 

Lena looked up and saw the tulpa from phase through the wall, smiling devilishly and raising its claws. A second later, two more joined it, manifesting from the latent magic of the Shadow Realm. 

“Okay, so, not good,” Lena said. Jeez, that was a lot of tulpas for a regular person to generate. “Oh, of course! They’re not Beakley’s disapproval, they’re my _fear_ of her disapproval!”

“Fantastic revelation. How do we stop them?” Violet asked.

“Can’t you just blast them?” Webby suggested.

“No, not here; they have the power here. Maybe if we—”

Before Lena could finish, with a great _crash,_ a massive, shadowy hand burst through the ceiling, crushing the tulpas flat under its palm. 

“Um,” Violet enunciated.

The hand twisted so its palm was facing them, and the fingers uncurled to reveal a scattering of a good dozen or so eyeballs across the hand’s surface, which regarded the three of them from an uncomfortable amount of simultaneous angles.

_Queenschild! So nice of you to drop by,_ Vicky said.

“God. I don’t have time for this,” Lena grumbled.

_What, not even a thank you for breaking up those nasty globs of psychic energy? You’re almost as bad as Greggilathleyon. You owe me one, now, you know._

“Is this some kind of lame effort to get me to agree to a contract? ‘Cause I’m not buying it,” Lena said.

“Hi! I’m Webby!” Webby greeted. “And as nice as it is to meet you, we were kind of in the middle of something, so—”

_Oh, the little pink one is here! I do so much enjoy watching Lena’s bumbling attempts at courting you. You make a great pair._

Webby blinked. “Haha, uh, thanks? Wait. You were watching us?”

_Darling, darling, darling,_ Vicky said. Her eyes blinked one after another, like a crowd at a football game doing the wave. _I’m always watching._

Lena sighed, and started focusing on her connection to the material plane. The sooner they left, the better. 

“How come when you make a fist, your claws don’t poke out your eyes?” Violet asked. “It seems like it would be uncomfortable.”

_Your puny mortal perspective would not permit you to understand,_ Vicky said.

“So, its magic,” Violet said.

_I have eyes on my hands; of course its magic._

“Could Lena use her magic to give me eyes on my hands, too?” Webby asked.

“Okay, we’re leaving,” Lena cut in. 

She centered herself and grabbed onto Violet and Webby’s shoulders. Then, with a burst of magic, they were sucked back through to the real world, shooting out of a shadow and tumbling onto the ground. They picked themselves up and dusted themselves off.

“Well. That was exciting,” Violet said.

Lena stretched out her back, eliciting a loud crack. “Totally worth it to lose Beakley, though.”

“I remember reading about a shadow-demon with eyes on its hands,” Violet said, tapping a finger against her chin. “Could that have been Avickarathi the Piercer?”

Lena’s eyes widened. “No, don’t—”

“Avickarathi?” Webby asked. “Oh! That must be Vicky! I remember you talking about her, Lena.”

“Stop saying her name!” Lena pleaded. “If it’s said three times, she’ll be able to manifest here!”

Suddenly, the door banged open, and Beakley appeared, hands on her hips. 

“Oh, come _on!”_ Webby lamented. “Can’t we get _two seconds_ alone?!”

“I’m sorry; _who_ is going to be able to manifest here?” Beakley demanded.

“Avickarathi,” Violet supplied, then quickly slapped her hands over her beak. 

“Violet!” Lena hissed, even as the air around them grew colder. “What did I _just_ say?”

“Sorry! You know I can’t stop myself from satisfying a question if I know the correct answer!”

“What’s happening?” Beakley asked, looking around. Her eyes settled on Lena. “Lena…”

“Oh, this was _so_ not my fault!” Lena barked, but her attention was on the swirling vortex of shadows that was gathering in the center of the room, steadily growing larger. “Everyone get behind me!”

Violet complied readily, and Beakley somewhat more hesitantly, though she did run over from the doorframe to stand behind Lena. Webby opted to stand more next to her than anything else, and they took each other’s hands, their bracelets faintly glowing.

The shadows coalesced into the form of a tall swan, though she was still a mostly-featureless silhouette, and instead of legs, her body swooped downwards to the floor in a billowing mass of darkness. Her neck was long and curved and ended in a tapered beak, but where her eyes should’ve been, there were two crudely-cut red gemstones. She unfurled two freakishly long arms that spanned the length of the whole room, nearly knocking over a few armchairs as she stretched them out. And, of course, speckled all over her hands like polka dots was a collection of intensely-staring eyes.

“Hello again,” Vicky said, her beak opening and closing in an unsettlingly erratic manner. “Thank you all most _dearly_ for the invitation.”

Next to Lena, Webby expelled a fantastically exasperated groan from her throat. Lena was inclined to agree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading!!
> 
> We're closing in on the end here... Assuming nothing goes terribly wrong scheduling-wise, the finale will come out sometime next week, along with the first chapter of another story I'm working on. No spoilers, but it may be mari _time_ for some nautical hyjinks...


	11. It's About Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webby gets impatient.

“Oh, I’ve missed corporeality,” Vicky professed as she loomed over them. Her many eyes flicked about, scanning every facet of the room. A few of them lingered on Lena, blinking as if they were licking their lips. “Mmm… this manor holds so many delightful possessions. They’ll look great in my collection.”

“I kind of thought she’d be after our souls, not Mr. McDuck’s furniture,” Violet muttered.

Webby let out a frustrated huff and put her free hand on her hip. “Okay, I’ve been very patient, but this is all starting to _seriously_ get on my nerves.”

“Webby?” Lena asked cautiously.

“I’m just—it’s one thing after another!” Webby exclaimed. “I invite you on an adventure, I almost get killed by a minotaur. I try to have a sleepover with you, we get eaten by a mirror! We’re having a deep moment out on the porch, and then Glomgold shows up for _no reason!_ What is it going to take just to have a chance to finally tell you that I like you? Is that too much to freaking ask? Gah!”

“Ohh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting your little love story?” Vicky asked, her voice dripping with condescension. “Well, too bad! Because once I cut your precious girlfriend in half, it’ll open up a portal for all the shades of the Shadow Realm to come through! This dimension will be _ours!”_

Beakley and Violet ducked down, covering their heads as one of Vicky’s claws swiped down towards Lena. But a burst of bright blue light from Lena and Webby’s bracelets struck out just before her talons could reach them, flinging Vicky’s hand backwards, where it slammed against the mantel, knocking Scrooge’s dumb cavalry lance off the wall.

“AAH! MY EYES,” Vicky screeched, her hand spasming. “What—?”

Lena was completely ignoring her, in favor of staring at Webby. “You… wanted to tell me that you liked me?”

“Uh… yeah,” Webby said. “I did.”

Lena smiled softly. “I, uh… like you too.”

“Oh, gross! Your magic reeks of _emotional bonding,”_ Vicky spat.

“Yeah? Well… I like you too,” Webby said to Lena, ignoring Vicky.

“You already said that, Pink.”

“Yeah? Maybe I wanted to say it again.”

“Should we, er, head out?” Violet asked, a few feet away. “It seems like this is getting sort of personal, and—oh, you’re kissing. I see. Hmm.”

It was then that Lena realized, perhaps belatedly, that they were, in fact, kissing. Webby was stretched up on the tips of her feet, her beak pressed gently against Lena’s. Lena instinctually put her hands around Webby’s ribcage, giving her a little more support so she didn’t fall over. She wasn’t going to let _anything_ cut this short—not this time. 

“Hey! Stop that!” Vicky roared. “Some of us are trying to tear you into pieces here!”

Lena had always found kissing to be a bit strange. She hadn’t ever really given the concept much more than a passing thought—well, until recently, that is. Webby was the first girl she’d ever thought of kissing; the first girl she’d ever _dreamed_ of kissing. And she had to say, it was living up to the hype quite well. 

_“Listen_ when I am _talking_ to you!” Vicky screeched, her many eyes narrowing in frustration. She wove her fingers together to make one large fist, and brought it down hard on Lena and Webby, only for their bracelets to flare up again and rebound it right into Vicky’s face, knocking one of eye fake gemstone eyes loose. “Gah! For the love of—”

The kiss deepened, sending goosebumps down Lena’s spine. She and Webby leaned into each other even more, bathing in the moment. Every so often a rush of magic would course through their bodies as Vicky tried to kill them, but Lena had just decided to tune her out at this point, in favor of focusing on Webby. 

God, she should’ve confessed _way_ sooner. 

“Fine!” Vicky hissed, after about her sixth failed attempt to hit them. “If I can’t hurt _you,_ then I’ll just have to hurt your little _friend!”_

Violet took a step back as Vicky turned on her. “Uh, guys? Not to interrupt, but my life is a little bit endangered at present.”

Reluctantly, Lena pulled away. “One sec,” she murmured to Webby. 

“It’s okay,” Webby said. “I was gonna run out of breath soon anyway.”

“Oh, right. You do need to do that,” Lena mused. “Huh.”

“You should probably save Violet now,” Webby said. 

“Right.”

Lena reached out a hand and closed her eyes. A tendril of purple magic seeped out from the amulet in her core, helixing around her arm and pouring into her bracelet. At the same time, her eyes went black, and thick droplets of shadow magic rolled down her cheeks, mixing with the magic from her amulet. She channeled all of it into her friendship bracelet, filled her mind with the sensations of the kiss she had just shared with Webby, and fired. 

Vicky was inches away from punching Violet straight through the floorboards when the blast of magic hit her square in the stomach. It ripped straight through her like a cannonball through paper, the excess energy discharging against the far wall. 

Vicky stopped cold, and shifted her hands around in front of her so that she could look at herself. Her many eyes widened, staring at the giant hole in her stomach, and the hot pink cracks that were now splintering along the rest of her body.

“You—but—no!” she cried. 

And then, with a satisfying _pop,_ she burst like a balloon, and the unnatural chill left the air.

“That was… effective,” Violet said.

“Well, my magic’s tied to my emotions, and, um,” Lena mumbled. “Yeah.”

“Does that count as an indirect kiss?” Webby asked, giggling a little. “Since you used kiss-emotions to fuel the spell?”

“No,” Lena said quickly. “Absolutely not. Vicky and I are acquaintances at best. I don’t even want to _think_ about kissing her.”

“Well then,” Beakley said, after a moment of silence. “I’m not entirely sure where to start with all this.”

Oh, right. _She_ was still here. Lena turned to her and huffed. “Look, fish and chips, I really, truly, honestly don’t give a single crap what you think about me, or us, or our relationship, alright? We can do what we want.”

“Slow down there, Lena. Back in the kitchen, I was _going_ to say that if you felt so strongly about Webby, I wouldn’t stop you from confessing,” Beakley said. “I simply didn’t have a chance to finish before Webby interrupted, and then you ran off.”

“…Oh,” Lena said. “Well that was a waste of a rebellious outburst.” 

“Wh—” Webby blinked in disbelief. “Really?”

Beakley nodded. “Really. I’m still… hesitant about all this, but I had a conversation with Della, and it gave me a lot to think about. So if you’re both really sure about this, then I’m willing to trust you. You’re growing up, Webby. It’s about time I stop trying to make all your decisions for you.”

Webby smiled and ran over to hug Beakley. “Thanks, Granny.”

“Now you’re in for it, Tea Time,” Lena said, smirking. “You just gave me free reign to corrupt your granddaughter with all my evil dark magic. Next time you see her, she’ll be wearing black eyeshadow and lace chokers.”

“Yes, we all think you’re very funny, Lena,” Beakley said, in a tone that suggested she didn’t find Lena particularly all that funny. “Now, if you’ll excuse me; I’m terribly behind on my chores.”

She gave Webby one final pat on the head, and then turned and left.

“I should probably head out as well,” Violet said. “My family will be having dinner soon, and my Dads prefer that I return home by then, especially when I’m with you guys.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “Why? What’s wrong with us?”

“It’s nothing about you personally. I just always end up suffering a traumatic near-death experience whenever I come over to your house,” Violet said. “My Dads are understandably concerned.”

“…Right,” said Lena. “Well, have a good one. And, thanks for wingwomaning and all. We… really needed it, apparently.”

Violet smiled. “It was my pleasure, but you should give most of the credit to Louie. It was his plan. Anyway, it’s about time I left. Good-bye.”

“Come over again soon!” Webby said, waving her off.

And then, suddenly, they were alone in the room. Lena glanced over at Webby, only to find her staring straight back at her already. Lena coughed, and blushed, and looked askance. “So, uh.”

“You’re a much better kisser than I thought you’d be,” Webby blurted out. 

“W-what?” Lena asked, laughing a little despite herself.

“Not that I thought you’d be bad or anything!” Webby quickly amended. “It’s just—I don’t know, I can’t imagine you’ve had much experience or anything, right?”

“You can’t have had much, either,” Lena said. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“Oh, well, yeah, I mean, I’ve kind of been practicing on my pillow for _years,”_ Webby said. “But—um—you’re much better than a pillow!”

“I’d sure hope so,” Lena said wryly.

“Th-that’s not what I meant!” Webby said quickly, waving her hands in front of her. “I’m trying to say it was good! Great, even! Amazing, spectacular, superb, breathtaking—”

Lena cut Webby off with a laugh. “I know what you mean, Pink. And… yeah. I agree. You could even say it was magical.”

“That was bad, Lena,” Webby giggled, giving Lena a light elbow. “Is Vicky gonna be mad that you banished her? She’s not gonna swear revenge or anything, right?”

Lena shrugged. “She’ll give me a lot of shit next time we have tea together, but she’ll get over it.”

Webby raised an eyebrow. “You have tea with her?”

“Every other week,” Lena affirmed. “She’s not exactly a great person, but I didn’t have a lot of choices for company when I was stuck in the Shadow Realm. You might not believe it, but she kept me sane. She and you both.”

“Well, I’m glad you have a few shadow friends,” Webby said. “I’m sure there’s a ton of shadow stuff you can’t talk about with any of us.”

“Yeah. I love you guys, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to complain about the ever-present call of the supernal beyond.”

Webb laughed. “I’ll bet.” They stood there in silence for a while longer, before Webby asked, “So, what now?”

“If you mean ‘What are we now?’ then I don’t really know,” Lena said. “But if you mean ‘What should we do now?’ then I might have a few ideas.”

“Yeah?” Webby looked up at her with a smirk. “Like what?”

“I mean, I know you had all that time with your pillows already, but a bit more practice couldn’t hurt, right?”

“Right,” Webby said, giggling a little. “Of course.”

She slid into her tip-toes once more, and this time, Lena made sure to bend down to meet her.

* * *

Lena and Webby were sat next to each other at the dinner table, not-so-subtly holding hands under the tablecloth. Launchpad was still fixing up the car from his latest drive, and Donald was taking one of his three-hour bubble baths, but the triplets, Scrooge, Della, and Beakley were all there with them. Currently, Huey, Dewey, and Louie were animatedly retelling their story of chasing after Glomgold. 

“…and so _then_ he released a bunch of sharks, and one of them _stole_ the Runestone of Talongass!” Huey exclaimed.

Della gasped good-naturedly. She really was a good Mom. “Oh no!”

“Scrooge had to wrestle it to get it back before the curse could take full effect,” Dewey said. “It was awesome!”

Scrooge let out a smug chuckle that Lena was pretty sure was supposed to sound humble. “Well. All in a day’s work, right?”

“Sounds like you guys had an exciting afternoon,” Della said. “Things were pretty quiet here.”

Beakley, Webby, and Lena all exchanged a glance.

“Lena and I kissed!” Webby said excitedly. 

Lena slammed her head against the table and groaned.

“Wh—and we _missed_ it?!” Louie shouted, leaning forward over the table. “Come on! That was, like, _days’_ worth of payoff!” 

“Finally!” Della exclaimed. “I’ve been wondering when you’d finally seal the deal!”

Webby looked at Lena nervously. “U-um—Sorry. I’m just excited.”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Lena said with a shrug, lifting her head up off the table. “But, yeah, we kissed. We talked about it and we’re, like, girlfriends now, or whatever.” 

“Congratulations!” Scrooge said. “We’re all very happy for you.”

“It was my plan that did it, though, right?” Louie said with uncharacteristic emotional investment. “I won!”

“We _all_ won,” Huey said. “This was for Webby and Lena, not for us.”

“You’re just mad ‘cause you bet five bucks that Louie’s plan wouldn’t work, and you were wrong,” Dewey said with a smirk.

Huey crossed his arms. “Whatever, that’s not what’s important right now. What’s important is that after all this time, we can _finally_ tease them _properly.”_

As Dewey and Louie’s eyes widened with giddiness, Lena and Webby’s widened in fear. 

“Oh, no,” Lena mumbled.

“Lena and Webby, sitting in a tree!” came a chorus of voices. “K-I-S-S-I-N—wah!”

The boys ducked for cover as a magic blast shot past their heads.

“Lena, no magic at the table,” Beakley said calmly as she cut her meat.

“It’s fine,” Louie said. “She’d never actually hurt us.”

Lena’s eyes narrowed. “Wanna bet?”

“Yeah, you love us too much,” Dewey said smugly.

“But not as much as you love Webby!” Huey chirped.

“You little twerps,” Lena hissed, her face on fire. “When I get my hands on you—huh?”

She paused as Webby handed her a dart gun. She turned, and saw that her girlfriend (she could call Webby her girlfriend now that was so weird and so good—) had somehow managed to put on her infrared goggles, and was holding her own dart gun at the ready. 

“Lena,” she said slowly, “what do you say we remind the boys whose house this _really_ is?”

“It’s _my_ house, and I would _kindly_ ask that you kids _please_ do not do this at the _dinner table!”_ Beakley insisted.

Lena ignored her, standing up in her chair and cocking her dart gun. “Better start running,” she said.

The triplets looked at her, looked at Webby, went ghost white, and ran screaming out of the dining room.

“Come on, Lena!” Webby said, doing a front flip over the table, much to Beakley’s horror. “After them!”

“You got it!” Lena said, slipping into the shadows. This was gonna be a _fun_ evening.

* * *

Beakley sighed as the children ran off, leaving their dinner plates abandoned at the tables. Looks like she’d have to use ‘clean up darts’ to her list of chores tonight. Again. “Here we go,” she mumbled.

“Ah, kids,” Della said fondly. “Aren’t they great?”

“They certainly keep you young,” Scrooge said.

“I’m happy for them.”

“…Me too,” Beakley said after a moment.

Della looked at her, hopeful. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Beakley smiled. “They deserve each other, I think.”

“Well,” Della said, shooting her a finger gun. “Glad to have you on board, because this ship is sailing!”

Beakley raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“It’s—it’s like a—it’s short for relationship, and—” Della sighed. “Oh, nevermind.”

* * *

After she and Lena had finished absolutely trouncing the boys in darts, Webby snuck back to her secret to-do list hidden behind one of Scrooge’s paintings. She picked up the glitter pen that she kept there, and began striking across the list. Their adventure in the Mirror of Truth probably constituted a life-changing revelation about the universe, right? Close enough, anyway.

She recapped her pen and set it down, stepping back to take a good look at the completed list.

Webby’s Seven Step Strategy for Success

  1. ~~Convince Lena to stay in the mansion~~
  2. ~~Help her through her nightmares :(~~
  3. ~~Hold her hand!! Romantically…?!?!~~
  4. ~~Discover a life-changing secret of the universe together~~
  5. ~~Kiss… Aaaah!! Under the light of the full Moon? (Ask Selene)~~
  6. ~~Lena asks me out!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~
  7. ~~WE ARE GIRLFRIENDS!!! <3 <3 <3~~



Webby smiled. This had been a really, really good week.

“Oh, wow, Pink,” said a voice from behind her. Webby’s eyes went wide. “Didn’t know you’d been taking this so seriously.”

“Lena!” Webby shouted, turning around and smiling nervously, attempting to hide the list with her body. “I forgot how little sound you make when you don’t want to!”

Lena giggled. “Haha, you had a crush on me. Nerd.”

“Wh—you had a crush on me too!” Webby rebuked. She could feel her blush rising; stupid blood! What was it even good for?

“Yeah, but I wasn’t a nerd about it,” Lena said, poking Webby in the cheek. She leaned forward to get a better look at the list. “Wait, we never kissed under the light of the moon.”

Webby followed Lena’s gaze and sighed. “Yeah. I don’t know, I got impatient.”

“Well, hey.” Lena shrugged, giving Webby a conspiratorial look. “Dunno if it’s full, but the moon’s out right now.”

Webby returned the look, a few giggles escaping her. “I know a shortcut to the roof!”

“Sounds like a date.”

Webby grabbed Lena’s hand—the hand that had started all of this, the hand that fit in her own so perfectly, the hand that Webby would go to any length to keep safe, and the hand that she knew would always catch her when she fell—and pulled Lena down through the twisting halls of the mansion, their laughs echoing off the tapestries and armor stands as they went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh WOW this fic is actually, like, done!!! Thanks so much for reading everyone; like everything I do, this ended up way longer than I thought it would, but I had an absolutely fantastic time writing it, and all the support that you guys have given really made it worth it.
> 
> I'm not nearly done with this fandom, though! If you've enjoyed my writing for this story, I would be very flattered if you would hop on over and check out my [Weblena Pirate AU fic!!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917430/chapters/54779473) I'm really excited for where I'm going with it, and also Webby is a mermaid, which is honestly her living her truth.
> 
> But yeah thanks so much for sticking through it with this story! I definitely kind of fell face-first into this fandom with a blindfold on, so I'm glad I managed to hit the mark pretty well with my first fic. I'll see y'all on the flipside!

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy everyone! [I made a tumblr for my ducktales fics](https://webby-vanderslap.tumblr.com/)! Pop on over if you wanna hang out, ask me stuff, or just look at the cute ducktales art I reblog! Thanks for reading :D


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